open...

there are some people that everytime they open their mouths i know exactly what they're going to say
they way they'll word it
the adjectives
verbs
and nouns they'll gather together to form what for them is a brand new idea

it doesn't matter how they construct it
how they position it
whether or not they change their intonation

i've already decided
my mind's made up

there's nothing new here

sometimes i make this decision without even having heard the person speak
but by the way they dress
the way they sit
the way they breathe
their tone
their pitch

i've already begun placing their voice
their perspective
will it support or undermine my own position?
will it challenge or affirm my own ideas?

"vanity of vanities...there's nothing new under the sun"

(ecclesiastes is the ancient version of one of those posters with kittens playing with yarn just above the word "perseverance")

for some of us this is our mantra
"i've heard it before"
"there's nothing new here"
"this is just the way the world works"

good times
bad times
all times

"we've been here before and we'll be here again"
there's nothing new under the sun

"God blessed humankind and said to them...be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

what if when God left the door of creation cracked he meant for us to fill in the gap
with our own creation
our own words
our own thoughts

and instead of bringing boxes we were merely supposed to show up, open handed

in order to imagine, to create, to speak things into being for the very first time

and maybe the most heretical thing we've done isn't to say things wrongly about God, but is rather to fear that we can

to fear:
the new
the different
the strange
the impossible

maybe this is why the resurrection is so compelling
because it invites us to see the new
the different
the strange
and the impossible...enfleshed
embodied

so, perhaps the question isn't have we heard this message before
have we asked this question already
have the right people okayed it
is it safe
is it right

but rather, are our hands and eyes open?
because maybe it's always been about putting flesh and blood on the breath that hovered over the waters
that spoke the world into being
and gave dust arms and legs

the breath that lived and moved among us
the breath that died
the breath that lives again and again and again

in outlining, defining, and deciding where truth does and doesn't come from maybe we've been missing the point of our genesis

"you can't think that"
"you can't say that"
"God doesn't do those sorts of things"
"there's nothing new under the sun"

just like...

"people don't rise from the dead"