The Weakest and the Best

 I normally do not remember my dreams. On a recent morning, I woke up to a hymn that was playing in my mind. I don't know if it was a real hymn or just one that was playing in my dream. The words I remember were, "What can God offer? The weakest and the best." The context of this dream was an Ordination of a colleague who was ordained before I met him and we were singing out of what I remember as the 1930, Evangelical and Reformed hymnal, or what some might remember as The Hymnal. Some may have no context for this observation. It was, for me, a point of reference for strange and peculiar dream. 

What caught my attention in the dream is the question, "What can God Offer?" Many of us have experiences of God. Some are good images of God and others are not so good. Many of our images of God reflect what we need or long for most. We see God as judge, or reconciler. We see God as male, and some see God as female. Some need a God who gives life and takes life. God can also be the one who longs for a meaningful relationship with God's people and is the one who brings justice and peace to our world. Finding myself in Costa Rica, I find the image of God as Creator, particularly poignant in my Costa Rican experience. What can God offer? The weakest and the best."

Photo by Tyler Rapp

There is no limit to God's re-creation of each new day in Costa Rica. While we were exploring our temporary home, we came across an image of new life breaking through the slow deterioration of a discarded bulldozer, once so powerful it could fell a tree, move a rock, or tons of soil in minutes, creating a path to another place. Once a powerful tool, now remains useless as it sits on the edge of a forest, slowly returning to the earth. In the meantime, a young plant makes it's forever home in the rubble of a once mighty instrument that destroyed the land that the young plant now reclaims. Here, in the rain-forest, the weakest and the best co-habitat together in God's new re-creation of a new day. 

God creates a world that is filled with contrasts, metaphors, and contradictions. Our life, each and every day is filled with the same gifts. At times illusive and at times frustrating. Yet, the weakest and the best reminds us that the work of God remains a mystery, not so much to be untangled from our human lives, but to be appreciated as something holy, something sacred, and a promise that in God's creative energy features the weakest and the best.  The cycle of life needs no explanation, but is for us, something that calls us to be present, to enjoy, and to affirm. Paul writes, "no part of the body is less important than another. All have value, purpose and work together to bring the newness of each of new day. What can God offer? the weakest and the best.