MONTESSORI
THE GREAT LESSONS
From the very beginning people have been
aware of God. They could feel Him though
they could not see Him, and they were
always asking in their different languages
who He was and where He was to be found.
"Who is God?"
they asked their wise men.
"He is the most perfect of beings"
was the answer.
"But what does He look like?
Has He a body like us?"
"No, He has not got a body.
"He has no eyes to see with,
no hands to work with
and no feet to walk with;
but He sees everything
and knows everything, even
our most secret thoughts."
and knows everything, even
our most secret thoughts."
"And where is He?"
"He is in Heaven and on this earth.
He is everywhere."
"What can He do?"
"Whatever He wishes."
"But what has God actually done?"
"What He has done is all that has ever happened.
He is the Creator and Master Who has made
everything, and all the things He has made obey
His will. He cares and provides for them all,
and keeps the whole of His creation in the
most wonderful harmony and order."
In the beginning there was only God. Since
He was completely perfect and completely
happy, there was nothing He needed.
Yet out of His goodness He chose to create
and all that He willed came into being;
the heavens and the earth,
all that is visible and all that is invisible.
One after another He made
the light. the stars, the sky, and the
earth with its plants and animals. Last of all
He made man. Man like animals was made
out of particles of the earth; but God made him
different from the animals and like Himself,
for into his body which would die He
breathed a soul which would never die."
Many people thought this was just a tale.
How could someone with no hands
and no eyes make things?
If God is a spirit who cannot be seen or
touched or heard, how could He have made
the stars that sparkle overhead, the sea
which always astir, the sun, the mountains
and the winds? How could a spirit make
the birds and fishes and trees, the flowers
and the scent they shed around them?
Perhaps He could make invisible things,
but how could He make the visible world?
It is all very well, they thought,
to say that God is everywhere,
but who has ever set eyes on Him?
How can we be sure He is anywhere?
They tell us He is the Master whom
everybody and everything obeys,
but why on earth should we believe that?
And really it does seem impossible.
We who have hands could not do these things, so
how could someone who has no hands do them?
And can we imagine animals and
plants and rocks obeying God?
The animals do not understand when we
talk to them, so could they be obedient?
Or the winds and the sea
and the mountains?
You can shout and scream
and wave your arms at them,
but they cannot hear you
for they are not even alive,
and they certainly will not obey you.
Yes, that is how it seems to us.
But, as you shall see,
everything that exists,
whether it has life or not,
in all that it does and by
the very fact of being there,
it actually obeys the will of God.
God's creatures do not know that
they are obeying. Those that are
inanimate just go on existing, those that
have life move and go on living. Yet every
time a cool wind brushes your cheek,
its voice, if we could hear it, is saying:
"Lord, I obey."
When the sun rises in the morning and
colors the glittering sea, the sun and the
sunbeams and the water also are whispering,
"My Lord, I obey."
And when you can see birds on
the wings, or a fruit falling from a tree,
or a butterfly hovering over a flower,
the birds and their flight, the tree and
the fruit and its fall to the ground, the
butterfly and the flower and its fragrance
are all repeating the same words:
"I hear , my Lord, and I obey."
Pinegreenwoods Montessori
God Who Has No Hands
