Reflection for October 25

To make suggests making something out of something else the way a man makes wooden boxes out of wood. To create suggests making something out of nothing the way a man makes paintings or poems.... When God created the Creation he made something where before there had been nothing, and as the author of The Book of Job puts it, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7) at the sheer and shimmering novelty of the thing. “New every morning is the love / Our wakening and uprising prove” says the hymn. Using the same old materials of earth, air, fire, and water, every twenty-four hours God creates something new out of them. If you think you’re seeing the same show all over again seven times a week, you’re crazy. Every morning you wake up to something that in all eternity never was before and never will be again. And the you that wakes up was never the same before and will never be the same again either (Frederick Buechner, “Creation,” Wishful Thinking).