...
Beloved, we are always in the wrong,
Handling so clumsily our stupid lives,
Suffering too little or too long,
Too careful even in our selfish loves:
The decorative manias we obey
Die in grimaces round us every day,
Yet through their tohu-bohu comes a voice
Which utters an absurd command: Rejoice.
Rejoice. What talent for the makeshift thought
A living corpus out of odds and ends?
What pedagogic patience taught
Pre-occupied and savage elements
To dance into a segregated charm?
Who showed the whirlwind how to be an arm,
And gardened from the wilderness of space
The sensual properties of one dear face?
...
(tohu-bohu is evidently the Hebrew for "formless and void")
These are but two stanzas from Auden's "In Sickness and in Health." I love that notion of "gardening from the wilderness of space"- it evokes such wonderful images. This is such a lovely way to think about creation.
Also, there is something strangely comforting about thinking that God has spoken the command for joy into the "tohu bohu" of our lives.
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