His voice and the sun shone, and gave warmth. He set the limits of the sea, and raised the mountains out of dust.”
Ryons was born a slave among the Wallekki and grew up without even a name to call his own. The masters’ gods were not for slaves, but often he saw the masters burning incense or sacrificing doves to one or another of their gods. It might be a figure carved from wood or stones, or a tree, or a pile of rocks. They asked these gods to increase their herds, to give them many sons, and for revenge upon their enemies. When such gifts were not forthcoming, they would turn to yet another god.
No one taught the slave child about the gods, any more than they would have taught a goat. He was more interested in finding food and avoiding beatings than in learning about the gods. There were so many of them, and it never seemed to him that any of them were very important. He certainly never heard that they created the earth itself. It never came into his head to wonder where the world came from, or anything he saw in it. It was all just there.
But this God was important! This God, Obst said, created him and knew him by his name. This was a God that even a slave could pray to—indeed, that even a slave must love and honor, and fear. And certainly—Obst said so—this God had plucked him out of slavery and made him King of Obann, had saved him from a hundred perils, and had put him atop a giant beast that had no name to save the city at the moment it was about to be destroyed. It made Ryons dizzy just to think of Him.
With his mind awakening to questions that he’d never imagined could be asked, Ryons ventured one to Dyllyd.
“Where did God come from?” he asked. “I mean, if God made the world, and everything else, where could He have been before there was a world?”
Dyllyd smiled. “I used to ask that very same question, Majesty,” he said, “and my teacher told me this: there never was a time when God was not God. Before God created it, there was no such thing as time. God had no beginning, nor will He have an end. He created beginnings and decrees the end of each created thing.
“We are flesh and blood, but God is spirit. The whole world ages, but not the God who made it. If you could look down from God’s throne—just in a manner of speaking!—all times would seem like now to you. God never changes, although everything else does.
“So it’s no use to ask where God came from—until God made all places in heaven and on earth, there was no where. I know that’s hard to understand. Most things about God are.”
Ryons wondered what Uduqu would say about a thing like that; he’d skipped his lesson today.
“It’s not hard to understand,” Ryons said. “It’s impossible!”
“It can’t be helped,” said Dyllyd. “It would be easier for a fly to understand what it means to be a human being, than for a human being to understand God. He is unimaginably greater than anything we know. That’s why all Scripture teaches us to love Him, and to trust Him, and to walk by faith and not by sight.”
“What does that mean!” Ryons cried.
Dyllyd rubbed his face and sighed. “Whew! You’ll make a theologian of me yet, Your Majesty! If I can explain these things, and you can understand them, by the time you grow to manhood, we will have both done well. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is learn the Scriptures.”
When he next saw Uduqu, Ryons tried to tell the subchief what he’d learned that day—or rather not quite succeeded in learning.
“I won’t live long enough to wrap my mind around such things,” Uduqu said. “God is God, that’s all I know. It’s good enough for me.”
“Easy for you to say, Chief. You don’t have to be a king.”
“God is wiser than to make a king of me,” Uduqu said.
CHAPTER 16
Two Angels
Helki met a man who’d seen the Griffs pass by. The fellow was a swineherd, but he had no pigs.
“Heathen took ’em, every one,” he said. “Don’t
Ryons was born a slave among the Wallekki and grew up without even a name to call his own. The masters’ gods were not for slaves, but often he saw the masters burning incense or sacrificing doves to one or another of their gods. It might be a figure carved from wood or stones, or a tree, or a pile of rocks. They asked these gods to increase their herds, to give them many sons, and for revenge upon their enemies. When such gifts were not forthcoming, they would turn to yet another god.
No one taught the slave child about the gods, any more than they would have taught a goat. He was more interested in finding food and avoiding beatings than in learning about the gods. There were so many of them, and it never seemed to him that any of them were very important. He certainly never heard that they created the earth itself. It never came into his head to wonder where the world came from, or anything he saw in it. It was all just there.
But this God was important! This God, Obst said, created him and knew him by his name. This was a God that even a slave could pray to—indeed, that even a slave must love and honor, and fear. And certainly—Obst said so—this God had plucked him out of slavery and made him King of Obann, had saved him from a hundred perils, and had put him atop a giant beast that had no name to save the city at the moment it was about to be destroyed. It made Ryons dizzy just to think of Him.
With his mind awakening to questions that he’d never imagined could be asked, Ryons ventured one to Dyllyd.
“Where did God come from?” he asked. “I mean, if God made the world, and everything else, where could He have been before there was a world?”
Dyllyd smiled. “I used to ask that very same question, Majesty,” he said, “and my teacher told me this: there never was a time when God was not God. Before God created it, there was no such thing as time. God had no beginning, nor will He have an end. He created beginnings and decrees the end of each created thing.
“We are flesh and blood, but God is spirit. The whole world ages, but not the God who made it. If you could look down from God’s throne—just in a manner of speaking!—all times would seem like now to you. God never changes, although everything else does.
“So it’s no use to ask where God came from—until God made all places in heaven and on earth, there was no where. I know that’s hard to understand. Most things about God are.”
Ryons wondered what Uduqu would say about a thing like that; he’d skipped his lesson today.
“It’s not hard to understand,” Ryons said. “It’s impossible!”
“It can’t be helped,” said Dyllyd. “It would be easier for a fly to understand what it means to be a human being, than for a human being to understand God. He is unimaginably greater than anything we know. That’s why all Scripture teaches us to love Him, and to trust Him, and to walk by faith and not by sight.”
“What does that mean!” Ryons cried.
Dyllyd rubbed his face and sighed. “Whew! You’ll make a theologian of me yet, Your Majesty! If I can explain these things, and you can understand them, by the time you grow to manhood, we will have both done well. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is learn the Scriptures.”
When he next saw Uduqu, Ryons tried to tell the subchief what he’d learned that day—or rather not quite succeeded in learning.
“I won’t live long enough to wrap my mind around such things,” Uduqu said. “God is God, that’s all I know. It’s good enough for me.”
“Easy for you to say, Chief. You don’t have to be a king.”
“God is wiser than to make a king of me,” Uduqu said.
CHAPTER 16
Two Angels
Helki met a man who’d seen the Griffs pass by. The fellow was a swineherd, but he had no pigs.
“Heathen took ’em, every one,” he said. “Don’t
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