an interlude: the music and the song

when i was born, my father bought me two gifts: a set of the american educator encyclopedia, and a speedo swim suit; whether he was encouraging a penchant for knowledge and near-nakedness, or minimalism, i'm not sure, but i still find the excess baggage of baggy swimwear silly, and i remember the end-papers of the encyclopedia vividly.

the endpapers showed the relative size of objects in the universe, described in powers of ten, with a hydrogen molecule as the smallest, the galaxy as the largest, and man right in the middle. i don't know how accurate this was, but it does reflect a good theological understanding of man's place in the universe in the biblical tradition.

indeed it is not only in the biblical tradition, but widely, that a human being is seen as a microcosm. the imago dei of genesis chapter one is also an image of the cosmos. between all the parts of creation there is a harmonic relationship. the pythagoreans understood this, and found it the basis of how we understand the universe; students at st. john's college in annapolis and santa fe start their education with pythagoras until this day.

if, however, the very nature of creation is musical, it does not therefore follow that there is only one song. so if i take the writings of the christian scriptures very seriously, and find in them a great song of the holy one's revelation to us, i am not claiming that this is the only way we can know god. indeed, it is the harmony between the revelation of creation (see my blog cycles of praise), the revelation of scripture, and ultimate the revelation in god the son, jesus christ, which verifies the truth of the song heard in scripture.

not all knowledge was contained within the volumes of the encyclopedia my father gave me at my birth. not everything we can know of god is contained in the book we believe our heavenly father gave us, either. but such gifts can be very good starts.