Welcome to Tuesday and our feature on nature as a window into the divine with a reflection based on the writing of Carl Safina, this time from his latest, Becoming Wild, with a special focus on the first word of that title.
The Sarum Prayer
God be in my head—and in my understanding
God be in my eyes—and in my looking
God be in my mouth—and in my speaking
God be in my heart—and in my thinking
God be at my end—and at my departing
Torah Portion
Exodus 3 (Robert Alter translation)
And the Lord’s messenger appeared to Moses in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush, and he saw, and look, the bush was burning with fire and the bush was not consumed…And the Lord said, “I indeed have seen the abuse of My people that is in Egypt and its outcry because of its taskmasters. I have heard, for I know its pain…and now go, that I may send you to Pharaoh and bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt…And Moses said to God, “Look, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’, what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh’ I-Will-Be-Who-I-Will-Be.”
Reflection Based on the Writings of Carl Safina
How does a land-based species morph into one that resides in the ocean? As is the case with whales, whose flippers have the same boney structure of our hands and feet? As Safina writes in Becoming Wild, “Evolution isn’t the sudden appearance of a new species, nor of instant large mutations. Radical mutations are usually fatal. Evolutionary changes are a generally slow, advantageous riff on the average… For example, the evolution of whales from land mammals didn’t happen because a litter of land grazers were born with flippers instead of legs. That bridge-too-far mutation wouldn’t work. Rather, the first step was for a wet-land dwelling population to develop webbing between their toes, like a Labrador retriever’s, leading to a more aquatic life benefitting from having webbed feet like an otter’s, leading to flipper feet like a sea lion’s, then to flippers like a seal’s that remain like flexible hands in mittens with nails that can scratch an itch, then eventually to the stiff fin flippers of a whale. Elapsed time: several million years.”
In other words, evolution, that is to say the process that shapes all the life around us, is a case study in becoming—change over time.
The ancients must have had an intuition that life is a process of becoming. The mythic poem of Genesis speaks of different life forms as a top down and bottom up emerging: (“God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures…let the waters swarm with the swarm of living creatures”) As an aside, I have a friend who stood before the ocean with waves crashing, transfixed. Without the slightest self-consciousness, she began to wave her arms about like a conductor conducting a symphony, at one with the symphony. Let the earth bring forth living creatures, indeed. The title of Safina’s book begins with the word, “Becoming.” This word is tied to the most sacred word in all of the Hebrew Bible: the unspeakable Name given from within the burning bush to Moses. The four-letter Name is best translated according to Robert Alter, the pre-eminent translator of the Hebrew Bible, as “I will be who I will be.” Not, as was earlier thought, “I am who am.” The latter is a Name of Ultimate Being, but “I will be who I will be” is a Name of Ultimate Becoming.
Evolution is a becoming process. And the Mystery speaking from the burning bush to Moses is all about becoming. Like successive populations a land-based species living near the water undergoing “advantageous riffs on the average” until feet accumulate enough small changes over time to become the flipper of a whale. Elapsed time: several million years. If we participate in life which is a process of becoming, what good company—a divine presence whose name means “I will be who I will be” (and so, over time, will we.) What we are, what life is, is always and ever becoming—an understated way of saying beautiful.
Meditation: Song of the Humpback Whale
Like the whales we hear singing in the oceans, celebrating, perhaps, not just their being, but also, their long becoming. Give a listen as they sing to their loved ones across vast distances. For the next minute, go ahead.
Prayer to the Spirit
Fire of the Spirit, life of the lives of creatures,
spiral of sanctity, bond of all natures,
glow of charity, lights of clarity, taste
of sweetness to sinners, be with us and hear us.
—Hildegard of Bingen, 12th century nun, writer, composer, mystic, visionary, polymath, regarded by many as a founder of scientific natural history in Europe.
Prayer for Loved Ones
Over the next minute simply name your loved ones, calling each to mind in love, lifting each in the embrace of remembered love, to the God who is the source of all becoming.
Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Benediction
So have a blessed day, go in peace, wash your hands, love your neighbor: you are not alone.