His Signature?

We have madly delved for data

   where terran truths are fossilized,
And have filtered through the strata
   for hopes man has hypothesized. . .
We have linked our lives to labors
   of stuporous seeker, fractured fact,
As our shepherds sharpen sabres
   to hack apart each human act.

But a God of shadowy wonder,
   who encased this globe in gaseous gloom
Left us nether-beasts of thunder
   to remind our pride of Satan's doom. . .
Who rebelled from lack of knowledge--
   defiled one brave created race
Only to despoil the homage
   of one God raised up in its place.

We enshrine unanswered queries
   as celestial screams fall on deaf ears;
Still, we chill at cemeteries,
   failing to inter our darkest fears. . .
We refuse to stand connected
   to a reasoned power past our own,
For our reason lies infected
   with viral visions set in stone.

Could our vision merely widen,
   we would feel, in answers never sought,
Creatures God chose to confide in
   who, for mercy's sake, by heav'n are taught. . .
Yes, the heavens are our teachers,
   as are hyacinth and zinnia;
Far more eloquent than features
   of Melchizedek's millenia.

One might think this God in error
   to deposit puzzles unexplained;
Earth would seem, perhaps, the fairer
   were all myst'ries in our minds contained. . . 
In no sense would He be worthy
   of His creatures' free, submissive love
If solutions all were earthly,
   if the vessels thrown could potters prove.

Should our science be so errant
   that signatures divine be lost,
Let us fear what cosmic parent
   would seek our ardor to exhaust!
But if God indeed has given
   insignias of such eloquence, 
Both the verbal and half-hidden,
   what counsel stands in our defense?

If this God came as a Brother 
   to invite with living blood and bone,
How can we search for another?
   Is it unjust that we die alone?
While all time and matter rages,
   while all energies in Him dissolve,
Will we yearn through endless ages
   for our higher power to EVOLVE?

MNA  
August 27, 1993