cave of FIRE

(For those who are brave to know)

that word

G o d

name, thing, person, exclamatory statement?

one entity? Many? Solid state? Fluid?

I looked up at the cave. The help at answers were everywhere. No shortage of thoughts.

On one wall was the symbol bearing the concept “SOURCE.” I looked for an invisible umbilical cord, bridging me to IT.

On another place where water trickled green was the worn aqua-edged singing of letters which angelically whined out the old echoes of melody which said “MASTER”. I felt for chains on me. But they were deeper than I could touch.

Under a stalagmite, when it was pushed hard enough to bend over, into the pools of blue, in the darkness, up shown, through the wetness, as if lit by fire and magma, burned and steamed for my eyes to follow: the image of AUTHOR. I tried to leaf through my ribs like pages of a book. But I couldn’t find my binding. But the words of design and limit were all over me just the same.

As wind swirled down through the ceiling tunnels that wove those chambers with lessly seen colors, I heard another idea whistling through the cavern. The noise whispered WATCHER. I couldn’t see them, but I knew that a zillion eyes had been trained on my path, through all my days.

And then a hole beneath my next footprints showed down through the layers the liquid silhouette of FATHER. And I began to cry tears that would break my strength. My heart glowed in that darkness at the thought of such a soft and unexpected word.

Similarly, when a weather system invaded that grotto and moved its ways to chambers I could not find, I felt the presence of impressions in the sub-atmosphere which proclaimed FRIEND.

What was this concept GOD, so rich with different meanings, but bleeding together into one UNIFIED state?

And then the pebbles on the ground all resined up with heat and coolness, other names I had also heard, but had yet to reconcile:

PERSONAL, TOUCHABLE, REACHING, CONDESCENDING, CAREFUL, THOUGHTFUL, IMMOVABLE, HOLY, QUIET, LOUD.

What is this event called God? How could a spelunker reckon the shadows and flame?

But they didn’t wait to be reckoned. The sparkles of light and flower just grew and fireflied the cave with:

MYSTERIOUS, and UNCHALLENGABLE, BEGINNING, and FINISHER, COMPLETOR, PERFECTOR, LAW, JUDGE, PUNISHER, and PARDONER.

Who could escape that cavern with a book large enough to contain the meanings etched therein?: RESCUER, REJECTOR, PURSUER, TREASURE, HIGHTOWER, GROTTO, ESSENCE, SEPARATOR, SPLICER, DEFINER, CLARIFIER, CONFOUNDER, UNQUESTIONABLE.

The weight of HIS NAMES pressed in on my smallness.

When I hungered for the surface again, I climbed those stairs that took me back to Terra. I looked at the stars. And even there the names kept coming. Check for yourselves what is said from those heights.

But one title I took from that land which foundations all others was a bit redundant. It was NAMER. Or HE WHO calls things as they are. HE WHO has the power to bring to pass the meaning embedded in what first gets spoken over a spirit.

And CHOOSER his final name. The one who manifests the fruit of his own choicing. Never failing. Ever successful. Always potent. Despite our squeals and our wiggles.

I felt in the darkness, to see if I was chosen. What was it you looked for? A tag? A brand? A soul tattoo?

Or was it just the calling of fire, of gentle burning, which watered a light in the soul.

That was it. A seed which speaks. Which haunts with a ghosting sublime. All consuming is HIS call. And perhaps that is the evidence, which lights up my naming. A call that can not be easily shed.

One thing I do know though. I am not GOD.

The world spinning quickly around me, a top which hopes to fly. It says we are GOD. But it changes names and titles, at the speed of fashion and whim.

But down in that cave are very old THINGS. Things which don’t seem to move when you press in on them.

And that frightens me. And it saves me.

All at the same time.

For I am darkness.

in need of a SPARK.