Waters cascading, white waves dancing over rocks
Testify, God, that we can’t confine to a box
The defining Force that propels the cataracts,
The constricting Fear that humbles before the facts.
We observe your power revealed in nature
And build statues and symbols, worship the creature
We have constructed in meager imitation
Of majesty that evoked awestruck elation.
Marble monuments record failure or victory;
We bow heads before both in solemn reverie
And scream in violent horror when ghouls deface
Our idols, our heroes, history they erase.
Ritual movements and solemn chants mark our prayers
To banners symbolic of our great nation’s affairs.
We gnash our teeth against silent protests
That abuse our symbols and defame our crests.
Waterfalls descend noisily through wooded glens;
We capture their grandeur, snapping on our smartphones
Visions of glory sullied by Creation’s groans
Under weight of trash and chemical refuse
We have anointed on it, as again we lose
Perspective of your power, memory of your love
That creates peace and your grace that renews above.
Spiritual cataracts, oddly named, so blur our sight
That we worship the symbol and ignore your light.
Wash from our eyes the blindness that obscures glory;
Free us from our box; open our ears to your story.
“What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.” (Habakkuk 2:18-20 ESV).
