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The Boast of a Flower
A final flash of lightning concluded an afternoon storm; the clouds found things to do elsewhere in the sky and the sun greedily reclaimed its customary center stage placement.
A lily of the field basked in the sun's drying warmth and swayed gracefully in the wind. She luxuriated in the day, gorgeously smiling at the breeze, then released her pure joy in the form of a fragrance.
Thinking about the lightning, and how it only had the briefest of lifetimes, she stated with all certainty, "I am beauty, and I am forever." She did not know, could not know, what the now-blustery wind knew--a simple, sad truth. She was here today, gone tomorrow, and soon he would carry her ashes along with him.
The distant dogwood tree deeply inhaled the lily's sweet scent as the wind gusts picked up speed past him. He couldn't help but laugh blooms on hearing her silly floral boast, and thought about himself in comparison. "She may be beauty, but I am strength, and certainly I am forever," he creaked, recalling the passing seasons of his years-long existence...while the ever-restless wind, not surprisingly, moved on, always on.
The air stream blew strong, grew strong, and quickly moved upwards, repeating the talk of "forever" and "strength" to the mountain. For the mountain, in its solidity, had the longest life the wind knew, and was the strongest solid form he ever encountered on his endlessly circling and swirling paths.
When the mountain got wind of the tree's brag of longevity, it revealed its centuries-old secret, a secret of identity, in a violent eruption. Through lava, through steam, the mountain screamed, "I have power, and I am forever!" The words blasted far above, fueled by immeasurably angry, seething heat.
Far below, in the very bowels of the earth, white-hot debate sparked change as massive plates asserted, "I am forever," "I am forever," each one, while jostling for the preferable, more comfortable position they would have to hold through unknown ages to come.
Up on the planet's surface, this translated to a quake, flinging out the news of the argument now raging on, and in, the Earth. Via trembling waves the particulars of the dispute surged out--out far, and out wide, so very deeply out, spreading thickly into the far-flung universe...
And the Cosmos chuckled, thinking he had the last word on the subject. He cleared his throat and rumbled, in tones too low to be perceived, "I am the Cosmos, and I am, unquestionably, forever."
Outside of space and time, yet omnipresent, observing the discussion with interest, stood the Creator. He had lovingly formed all of these participants, entities now locked in a momentary conversation about the everlasting eternal.
He spoke, "I AM," and the issue was settled.
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"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8)
Brenda Kern
March 24, 2004
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