The Gift God Left

And now
taken by the urge
I will create.
I will create ruthlessly.
I will call forth from the depths of imagination
a world
and creatures big and small to populate it.
I will force the breath of life
down the throats of peaceful sleepers
who did not ask to be woken.
Their heads will turn at my Word.
Their mouths will open at my behest
and they will proclaim my supremacy.
They will call me Lord and King and Creator
and spread their arms like wings
and try
and fail
to embrace the totality of me.
In their futility
they will prostrate themselves before me
and weep.

I will love my creations
my people.
When they are obedient
I will grant them Good Fortune
and make miracles happen.
When they are starving
I will make manna rain from the sky.
When they are thirsty
I will make water spring from solid rock.
Some of them will see my works and rejoice.
Some of them will ask
Why did you allow us to starve in the first place?
Why did you allow us to thirst?
They will be right to ask
and I will punish them accordingly.

I will love and hate my creations
as they will hate and love me.
I will make them good
and then tempt them to evil.
When they fall for temptation
I will take punitive measures against them.
I will expect more from them than they can give.
I will not forgive them for being imperfect.
When they err
I will beat them down with thunder and famine.
The earth will open beneath their feet
the waves will savage their seawalls
the tempest will rage against the levees of their souls.

Some spirits will be broken.
In their brokenness
though it will be of little comfort to them
they will serve a noble purpose:
to convey one Truth of life.
Other spirits
rain-battered and seared by rage
will harden into a bulwark against my love.
Their resolve will calcify as hate.
Many of these will claim that they no longer believe in me
and to that I will say
Who is it then that you are hating?
In their confoundment and loathing
they will reveal another Truth.

In the face of the devastation I send against them
my people will come to depend on one another.
They will shake hands
and help each other to their feet.
A man will brush the dirt from his neighbor’s shoulder.
A woman will tend to her neighbor’s wounds.
A child will offer his friend the last slice of cake
and he will do so not because he thinks he has to
but because he understands
without understanding
that kindness is just the way we do things around here.

And just when it looks like my creations
might be figuring some things out
I will abandon them.
I will not mean to.
It will just happen.
I will have other things to do
other people and worlds to create.
I will leave
though I will not have gone anywhere.
I will be here
where I have always been:
inside my head.

Though they will look for me
my creations will not be able to see me.
They will call my name in the darkness.
Some will do it loudly
others from the deep
desperate quietness of their hearts.
I will answer none
if I hear them at all.

But I am not heartless.
Before I go
I will leave my people with a gift:
the hope that I will return.
It will sustain them for many seasons
my gift
but in time
hope too will fade.

Then it will be up to them.