"Yes, We Can"

Do human beings have a divine origin?  I’ve always believed so, in spite of all our rough edges.  Those edges are mighty ugly and mean, even evil sometimes, but deep down inside we have the potential of becoming more fully human.  We have the mental and spiritual capacity to “make” a better world for ourselves and for future generations.  Yet, observing our present dilemmas, I sometimes think with Oscar Wilde, that, “God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” 

Rufus Jones in his book, New Eyes for Invisibles, records an old legend of Creation which tells “how all the tiny seeds of life came up before God and He let them choose what they would like to be.  One wanted fins so that he could swim the seas.  Most of the surface of the world was water and he wanted to be in it.  Another one wanted wings, for there was even more air than water and he wanted to be in the air.  A third wanted a powerful mouth and swift feet, so that he could catch and eat plenty of food.  God made him a lion.  One tiny seed came near being overlooked, he was so quiet.  ‘Well, little fellow,’ God said, ‘what would you like to be?’  ‘I don’t  want fins,’ this tiny seed said.  ‘And I don’t want wings, nor crushing weapons in my mouth, like the lion.  Just let me be made in your image.  Then I can make the things I need for the water and the air and the earth.’  So God made man in His own image.”

If you don’t get the gist of it the first time, read it again.  

Egypt--1962

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.” (Albert Camus)