Daily Reflections and Worship Resources
The woodpecker works the dead branch.
He knows something’s in there.
Under the roots of things
a river flows, a heart empties.
A thread, a movement, a doorway,
a breast with milk in it.
Sometimes the path is long
and bears much following.
But still, the world
is an open palm.
[ Exodus 3.14]
At the burning bush Moses said,
“But who are you? What is your name?”
And the voice said, “I BE.”
I don’t have a name, a “handle,” a nickname,
a way to get your mouth or your mind around me,
a way to talk about me instead of to me.
I am not subject to description or categorizing,
to qualification, comparison or familiarity.
Whatever you think I am, I am not that.
There is no vocabulary for me, no metaphor.
I am this. I am within. And within that.
And beyond. I am unnameable. Unpinnable down.
I be. I be being. I am the very being of being.
Being is me. Your being, your enemy’s being,
the toad’s being, the star’s being, that’s me.
I am the living process of being: I am;
and therefore I am becoming: I will be as I will be.
I am becoming myself, eternally becoming.
You may call me “Yahweh,” which may sound like
“Yeah, wow,” or “Oh, yeah,” or “Oh, well.”
Or Allah. Or Om. Or One.
You may quibble over “him” and “her” and “it” and “they,”
or Father Son and Holy Ghost,
but you are arguing about which lie is the real one.
There is no dignified way to speak of me,
no language that is not awkward or ungainly,
making you feel so ineptly human in my presence.
You can’t speak about me without talking to me,
because I am here. You and your hearer are in me.
Honestly all you can call me is “Thou.”
Or even simply speak of me in silence.
Don’t worry,
I will know what you mean.