Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Lite Brite

I suppose the toy called, "Lite Brite" is rather mundane now compared to video games and Transformers that turn from trucks to tree top giants in a few twists but in our children's day a Lite Brite was something to be desired. In case you have been living in a cave for lo these many years or you've never had or been around children, a "Lite Brite" is a plastic "screen" with holes in it. You then place multi-colored pegs in the holes in order to create a design or picture. Once the pegs are arranged you flip the switch and "tah-dah" your creation lights up.

In Jewish wisdom teaching there is the story of Ein Sof. Ein Sof is the God-like power of the infinite that decided to create "something" so that it would have something with which to relate. The problem is that when this "creation" happened the energy was so powerful that the "containers" in which the "light" was placed could not contain the light. The vessels broke into pieces. This event is called the "Shevirat ha-kelim" and the "sparks" that became a part of the broken pieces are called "netzutzot."

This means that parts of the divine light are all over the place but they are in "pieces." Life becomes both a recognition that all of creation contains elements of the divine light and the growing awareness that the true task of life is to help "God" put Creation back together again.

I know this is not the story that is told in the Bible about Creation but I still like what the story has to teach those of us who will listen even if from a distance. One of our Creation stories (and yes there are two if you pay close attention: Adam and Eve/ and/ the Seven Day account) ends with "broken people" being cast out of the garden. Before you know it Cain kills Abel, there is a terrible flood because people won't listen, and the remaining folks decide to "be like gods" and build a tower tall enough to "see it all.".....sounds like broken vessels to me.

So the idea of life being about helping God get the light back in the bottle sounds pretty good. Life then becomes about partnering with God in the healing of the world. Our Jewish heritage has an expression for that too: Tikkun Olam....to repair the world.

There are those in our faith tradition who still think that God is working with some time-table to destroy the world. Then there are those who pay no attention to any tradition who think our role is to "consume" the world as a commodity.

I like the tradition that says we are to recognize that all of life is sacred because it all contains pieces of divine light...even though the light is contained in broken vessels. It takes vision not just sight to "see" that divine in some people...and I'm at times that "some people" because sometimes I act like a really broken vessel. I hope someone has the vision to see the light in me when I forget it.

Let's be about helping God heal the world. Some people think God is not present because there is so much that is broken in our world. This old tradition may just help us see that in the brokenness God is there...and we are supposed to be there too...helping God heal the world. So I come full circle. Creation may be God's "Lite-Brite" and we are to start putting in the pegs to help God make a bright future.
jody

1 comment:

  1. Wow Jody..I have just been doing some reading on hurtful religion..The kind that when people leave they use words like addiction and recovery..This was a breath of fresh air after that..

    I used to play Lite Brite at Teresa and Krista's house as a child...Come to think of it they were our family friends who were United Methodist..

    Carolina Caroline

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