"Agus ghabh an Tighearna Dia an duine agus chuir e e ann an gàrradh Edein, ga shaothrachadh agus ga ghleidheadh… Agus dhealbh an Tighearna Dia as an talamh uile bheathaichean na macharach, agus uile eunlaith nan speur, agus thug e iad a-chum Adhaimh, a dh'fhaicinn cionnas a dh'ainmicheadh e iad: agus ge bè ainm a thug Adhamh air gach creutair beò, b'e sin a b'ainm dha. Agus thug Adhamh ainmean don sprèidh uile, agus do eunlaith nan speur, agus do uile bheathaichean na macharach." (
"Thóg an Tiarna Dia an duine agus chuir i ngairdín Éidin é chun é a shaothrú agus aire a thabhairt dó...Chum an Tiarna Dia dá bhrí sin as an talamh ainmhithe an mhachaire go léir, éanlaith an aeir go léir, agus thug sé i láthair an duine iad féachaint cen t-ainm a thabharfadh sé orthu: cibé ainm a thabharfadh an duine ar gach dúil bheo, sin é a bheadh mar ainm air. Thug an duine ainm ar an eallach go léir, ar éanlaith an aeir go léir, agus ar na hainmhithe allta." (Geineasas 2:15,19,20 [An Bíobla Naofa])
"Thóg an Tiarna Dia an duine agus chuir i ngairdín Éidin é chun é a shaothrú agus aire a thabhairt dó...Chum an Tiarna Dia dá bhrí sin as an talamh ainmhithe an mhachaire go léir, éanlaith an aeir go léir, agus thug sé i láthair an duine iad féachaint cen t-ainm a thabharfadh sé orthu: cibé ainm a thabharfadh an duine ar gach dúil bheo, sin é a bheadh mar ainm air. Thug an duine ainm ar an eallach go léir, ar éanlaith an aeir go léir, agus ar na hainmhithe allta." (Geineasas 2:15,19,20 [An Bíobla Naofa])
Athair,
Tha an sealladh seo cho drùidhteach. Mar phàrant gràdhach a’ togail bog-dhèideig fa chomhair leinibh agus a’ faighneachd, “Dè tha seo? Cò seo tha tighinn air chèilidh ort?” Aighear an uairsin ri oidhirp an leinibh freagairt a dhèanamh.
Chì sinn as ùr cuideachd mar a bhrosnaicheas Tu ar feòrachas saidheansail is ealanta – an spreigeadh a-staigh ud gus an saoghal a thuigsinn. Meòrachadh air dubhcheist an domhain. Dealanaich an lèirsinn air a leantainn le tàirneanaich an labhairt.
Ach nar peacadh agus aineolas bheir sinn ainmean-brèige do na beathaichean. Gan glacadh am broinn chèidsichean-inntinn. Am broinn bhucasan cairt-bhùird de chlisèidhean. Fosgail ar n-inntinnean a-rìst, a Thighearna. Thoir dhar cuimhne gu bheil a h-uile bheathach mar Aslan, allaidh ann an dòigh a-choireigin le “Thusa-achd”. Tha bun-chiall nam beathaichean ag èaladh às bhuainn. Oir is ann bhuatsa tha an ciall ud a’ sruthadh. Agus tha Thusa neo-chrìochnach.
Cha ghlacar an ciall fiùs am broinn cèids-inntinn mhòr àrd-theicniceach pròiseict-ghìonoim. Oir chan eil ann an Ceimig ach aon leabhar san Leabharlann. Loidsig mòrchuiseach fhèin an aon rud. Togaidh an Fhìorachd a h-uile doras Leabharlainn far a lùdagan. Mar sin bu chòir dhuinn coinneachadh rid bheathaichean gu slàn agus gu bitheil. Le ioraslachd agus le iongantas. San aon dòigh, cha mhòr, a thèid sinn an taic riutsa. Oir ann an seagh tha sinn a’ coinneachadh riutsa tromhpasan.
Thoir tuigse duinn, ma-thà, nach deach do chreutairean a chur chugainn gu bhith nan ciomaich againn ach gus ar leigeil ma sgaoil. Gus na cèidsichean sa bheil sinn fhèin an sàs a dh’fhosgladh. Gus ar teagasg gu bhith a’ ruith, a’ streap, a’ snàmh, a’ tumadh, ‘s a’ dol air iteig.
Agus oh! tapadh leatsa, a Thighearna, airson aighear nan earball! Mar shnas-sgeadachadh fo ainm sgrìobhte…
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The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it…Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field." (
Father,
This scene is so poignant. Like a doting parent holding up cuddly toys before an infant and enquiring, ‘What’s this? Who is this that has come to see you?’ Then delight with the child’s attempts to identify each guest.
We see afresh too how You encourage scientific and artistic curiosity – that inner impulse to analyse reality. We brood on the unknown, and the lightning of insight is followed by the thunder of utterance.
Yet in our sin and ignorance we can misname the animals you bring to us. Trapping them in hideously cramped concept-cages. Allowing them to languish and perish in cardboard-box clichés. Open our minds again, Lord. Remind us that, like Aslan, all creatures are somehow forever wild with Youness. Their meaning ultimately evading us, because that meaning flows from the infinite You.
So even the vast high-tech concept-cage of a genome project cannot contain their meaning. For Chemistry is but one book in the Library. As is even haughty Logic itself. In the end, Actuality unhinges all Library doors. Thus we should meet Your creatures holistically and existentially. Humbly and wondrously. Almost as we meet You. For in a sense we meet You in them.
Help us then to appreciate more and more how Your creatures are not sent to be imprisoned by us but to set us free. To open the cages we find ourselves trapped in. To teach us to run, and climb, and swim and dive and fly.
And oh! thanks for the exuberance of tails, Lord! Like a flourish beneath a signature…
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Feedback:
|I'll need to get that mousse recipe from you! It looks delicious!
Neil,
Your joke actually goes straight to the heart of my post. We are more and more brow-beaten by the prevailing humanist belief-system which insists that the mouse (as well as the "mousse"!) can be reduced to chemical ingredients (DNA/ genome sequence). Of course the chemistry can be accurate enough as far as it goes, but if the chemistry is presented as the beginning and end of the creature, we are faced with an anti-Biblical reductionism - a hideous "mechanicalism" which threatens to make robots of us all:
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Feedback:
|I'll need to get that mousse recipe from you! It looks delicious!
Neil,
Your joke actually goes straight to the heart of my post. We are more and more brow-beaten by the prevailing humanist belief-system which insists that the mouse (as well as the "mousse"!) can be reduced to chemical ingredients (DNA/ genome sequence). Of course the chemistry can be accurate enough as far as it goes, but if the chemistry is presented as the beginning and end of the creature, we are faced with an anti-Biblical reductionism - a hideous "mechanicalism" which threatens to make robots of us all:
As Christians we must surely believe that the mouse far transcends any chemical "recipe". Its meaning is in some real and wonderful sense inexhaustible, because that meaning flows from its Creator Who is inexhaustible.
Dooyeweerd argues that nothing temporal has "meaning in itself" - the attempt to assert such is apostasy. Also, with his "sphere-sovereignty" approach, Dooyeweerd insists that the "biotic" cannot be reduced to the "chemical/physical". The "sentient" cannot be reduced to the "biotic". The "analytic" cannot be reduced the "sentient". And so on:
Van Til tells us that just as God cannot be reduced to "One" or "Three", so God's creation is also pervaded by that self-same unfathomable tri-une mystery.
Christ tells us "Consider the lilies", "Consider the ravens". He informs us that God notes each sparrow which falls. He likens Himself to a mother hen wishing to gather her chicks.
Proverbs tells us "Go to the ant".
The psalmist tells us that the swallow finds shelter for its young ones by the altar of God.
The sung psalm says "We are His sheep, He doth us feed".
The mouse is about God.
The mouse is about us.
This is why I find Attenborough's programs so insidious. Utterly apostate reductionist science packaged and sold to us by hugely compelling cutting-edge visual art (and where, tell me, would Darwinism have got to without the pivotal collusion of artists?).
But the mouse still brings home the groceries....
F.
