I knew how to handle dogs because I’d had plenty of them. I only remember this story, I think, because, as the youngest of seven, I have always felt the smallest, weakest and dumbest of all. This dynamic endured throughout my life and 20-year marriage. This encounter changed that, if only for a moment.
Bear with me while I go on a small tangent. I took Latin in high school. I don’t remember much of it now, but one thing made a strong impression on me. Every week my Latin teacher, Mrs. McGarrity, wrote a common phrase on the board. It was a phrase that originated in Latin but is still in use today.
The first phrase she wrote on the board was “Fiat lux.” Let there be light. The first words God used to speak creation into existence. She explained the form of the word fiat is a command form. God commanded there be light and there was and continues to be.
When the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would have a Son, she said, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Her response is often referred to as Mary’s fiat. She uses the same phrase, let it be.
By her word, she commanded a change to the course of her life; to a course that agreed with God but disagreed with her own understanding and expectations. She already believed she was doing the will of God, showing God how much she loved Him by committing to be Joseph’s wife and living as they had already agreed to live, celibate, as brother and sister, a supremely noble intention. But God wanted something more for her and from her. This something would impact the whole human race from that moment in time to the last moment in time and into eternity.
At the wedding at Cana, she tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
This is our charge. Yet, I never hear teaching on Genesis 1:26-28. Almost as if the Father never said it or rather didn’t mean it. Why is that?
It’s one thing to control domesticated animals as I did when I was eight years old, but who can control a wasp or bee or how about rain?
If God really is our Father, shouldn’t we be able to do “greater works than these?”
Okay, so maybe telling a wasp not to sting, or stopping the rain for five minutes is not greater than restoring someone’s sight or the ability to walk, but you gotta start somewhere.
