Dams and Delight

With the arrival of the warm weather I was thinking about some of the funny things we did as kids. One of our favorites was a game called "Dams." First we would run the garden hose up to the top of the overgrown area of our backyard. Then, as the water began to roll down the hill, we would carve canals in the soil to direct it. Finally, we would try to construct great dams and waterways out of mud and sticks and whatever else was around.

There was a great delight in what we created. A genuine act of creation is always a moment of delight. It is our participation in God's creative act, the over-flowing of goodness by which creation itself comes to be through God's Word. The Trinity is the original community of mutual delight. When the Trinity expresses Its Delight, we get the creation all around us.

When we create our heart touches the primordial delight of the divine life. This is why our acts of creation are always moments of delight. The creative process of the artist. The mutual delight of sex. Children making things out of mud. These are all ways in which we imitate God the Creator and participate in the creating power of divine Delight.

This is also the insight of Dante when he says that art is the grandchild of God.