potter water
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I only partly apologize for the length of this post, but maybe a few will find some fun in it. If you don't want to invest a few minutes reading, stop HERE.
And on the Seventh Day, the Lord of the Earth and Heavens Created Lake Powell
It was a pleasant evening on the Lake. Little Beth and Little John were very tired from a long day of swimming, fishing, and playing in the mud and sand. But, the adrenaline was flowing and they weren’t able to sleep. Beth asked their dad, Tom, how Lake Powell had come to be and he told them.
“Okay, Dear Children, this is the real story.” Beth and Little John yawned and snuggled under the covers in their cabin on the houseboat.
Tom, began, “The Lord was very tired late that Saturday night, the sixth and final day of creation. Being all-powerful has its drawbacks, one of them being that all-powerful can get wearing after a while—thus, the whole Idea of creating a seventh day to rest. He looked forward with glee to hang the sign on his bedroom door that said, ‘Do not disturb.’ The sign was required because his family, mostly young men and women and children like you, were full of ideas and energy and were constantly going on at him about increasing the size of the world or perhaps adding an additional moon to create a more balanced image in the night time sky. But the Lord was weary and shushed them all as he trundled off to his chambers. Just one day off, he thought, that’s all, just one day.
He snuggled down into his freshly washed sheets and laid his head on his pillow which had been customized specifically to guarantee a sound sleep. As he let the stress and thrills of creation, and the resultant overload of adrenaline ooze away, he pondered his work. He loved all of it—the mountains, the valleys, the fiords, and the volcanoes—all of it. He wasn’t sure about the two creatures he’d plunked down in the gorgeous garden, the crowning glory of his last couple of days—the garden—not the two who were there in it. ‘Have I gone too far putting them there without making them work for it? Yes, it is a risk, but what’s done is done.’
Soon, he was distant from the big ideas of his family and found himself in a dream, floating all alone and far away from the difficult work of the prior six days. He liked the feeling of floating. Of course when he was awake, he could float or go anywhere he wanted because he was, after all, all-powerful, but this dream-floating was different. He wasn’t creating the movement, something else was. It was a gentle up and down motion and not in his control. Yes, that was it, the floating was moving him. It was a delicious sensation and just as he was starting to get his sleepy head around the whole experience, he awoke. Even the Lord needed to make a middle of the night trip to the small bathroom just off his chambers.
When he returned, he snuggled even deeper into his covers and tried very hard to pick up on that same floating-dream, but to no avail. So, though it was very early on that seventh day, he got out of bed, put on his robe, and tiptoed out into the hallway. None of his children were there and that pleased him. It was not a surprise that they were still asleep because his children were normally awake until all hours chatting and talking about how clever they were and how they would do the whole six days differently and how maybe the old man should retire and leave the lord business to them.
He’d offered the job to them, but the arguments that ensued about which of them should be the chief soon made them realize that it was better to be in a position of critic of the old man’s work than to have to defend their own. So, he smiled as he heard the deep breathing and snoring coming from his children’s rooms as he walked down the halls to his work chamber.
He sat on his most comfortable chair and swept away the curtains exposing the new world to his all-powerful, vision. He zoomed in on the garden and as expected those two were also fast asleep, tummies round from a day of eating the fruits and vegetables that spontaneously appeared. The male had his arms wrapped around a Chihuahua that was snoring in synchronization and the female--drool coming from the corner of her perfect mouth--had a snake curled up on her shoulder, seemingly whispering in her ear. The Lord couldn’t remember if snakes actually slept, but the one he created was non-poisonous, so perhaps it didn’t really matter.
The dream about floating pestered him as he tried to actually rest on that seventh day. He wanted to rest all day, but he stared at the earth while drinking some cold juice taken from his work room fridge. Creative thoughts floated around in his head like dandelion seeds in a breeze.
He couldn’t shake the idea that he’d seen something down there on the world that was not quite right and called for his construction manager to bring in the world plans.
He wiped a drop of Camaldafarge juice from the corner of his mouth, put his napkin down, and spread out the world plans as his construction manager stood by, sleepily shifting from foot to foot and checking his watch. The Lord studied the plans intently and there it was--or perhaps more correctly stated, there it wasn’t.
With the relevant plans sheet in hand and vision zoomed in to a certain place, he turned his head from the world and then to the plans, and back to the world. ‘A crack, a crack that isn’t on the plans,’ he thought.
The construction manager validated that indeed there was no specification for a crack in that area. It was specifically stated on the plans that the area would be flat, dry, and saved for future development. The construction chief had no explanation for the crack, but suggested that it represented no danger to the world and perhaps when future development was specified, it could be filled in or kept as a feature.
The Lord was only mildly satisfied with the answer, and gave himself a pat on the back for knowing the world so completely that he could remember such a small deviation from the plan.
The manager reminded the Lord that this was a rest day and all of Heaven was waiting for day eight when the Lord would announce the next big project.
The Lord dismissed the underling and trundled back to his sleeping chamber, stretched out and closed his eyes, but sleep wouldn’t come. The crack bothered him no end.
Once again he put on his robe and went back to his work chamber, swept back the curtain, zoomed in on the crack and meditated. Tweaking his vision a little bit more, he saw water in the crack.
The water made him feel a little better because he liked water a lot. His children had criticized the use of so much water because it was difficult to transport and that rocks and dust were already floating around the construction site and just needed to be packed on. But, the Lord ignored them and water became his most important world architectural tool. In fact, the plans called for the place to be covered with it from the earliest days of construction.
Yes, there was some water there, but the crack was very long and ‘kind of boring,’ he thought. Oh, the earth was covered with many planned cracks, but this one due to some mistake, just didn’t have the visual pop that his other crack designs provided. One end of the crack pretty much looked the same as the other end.
As he was known to do--too often in the minds of the construction folks--the Lord reached out his finger and touched the crack, tracing it as it ran down towards one of the great seas. Of course, when he did that, the crack widened a bit. He liked the effect. So, looking around to make sure none of the construction people had slipped in, he pushed a little harder here and there to add a little variety to the crack. ‘Much better,’ he thought, ‘But still not quite right.’ He was pleased with the details he’d added to the crack and seriously considered just opening the whole thing up wide and deep and creating an inland sea. But, he didn’t want to do battle with the family and the construction people over the logistics of more water, so he set that idea aside.
Then, it occurred to him that he could create a sort of inland sea by simply damming up the crack in a spot or two and letting the backed up water spread out a bit.
He looked carefully along it and found a place that if dammed up, might create a nice body of water, not a sea, but a lovely major water feature that could easily be seen, even without his zooming powers. He gently reached down and using the tip of his finger as a plug, poked it into the crack and waited.
Tears came into his eyes as he saw the water spread out much wider and further than he’d imagined. It was beautiful he pulled his finger out and called for his construction manager to come look. Of course when he removed his finger, the water ran out so he had to stick his finger back in.
The underling agreed that it was magnificent but there was no way to create a permanent dam that wouldn’t just wash out and undo the artistic intent of the Lord. He also reminded the Lord of his own rule of creation, ‘no all-powerful interference allowed after the end of the sixth day.’ ‘Drats!’ Said the Lord to no one in particular.
After the underling had left the work chamber, the Lord walked to the door and locked it. He thought of his dream and how he was floating, not because of being all-powerful, but because something else was causing the pleasant up and down sensation.
In all the eons that he’d been creating wondrous things with water on them, the thought that he should give up control of his own movement to whatever the water might do was intriguing.
He had visited the world many times and actually stood on the solid ground, but water had always been a visual thing for him and he’d never ventured into or onto it.
He couldn’t resist and put his finger down on the crack again, scooping soil and rocks into the very spot where he had poked his finger. The water filled and overflowed the temporary dam. Pleased, the Lord shrunk himself down and using his all-powerful powers shrunk smaller and floated down to the shoreline just created by the temporary stoppage of the flowing water.
From his new vantage point he stared at the water and touched it first with one foot, then the other and adjusted his float factor so that he weighed just enough to let the water support him yet not so much that he would sink. He began to stroll across the water and noticed he was floating, just like in his dream. The water moved gently along and lifted and lowered him in the most pleasant way.
Then he looked up and what he saw caused him to lose his balance and he fell down onto the surface of the water. It was magnificent. This crack and the water created one of the most wondrous things he’d ever seen and, other than stopping up the water, he had had little to do with it.
There were magnificent stone formations rising hundreds of times his own miniature height. Other canyons spread out everywhere, each with its own variety of unimaginable beauty. The water and the light and the colors and the sensations were overwhelming even to His godly senses.
He rolled over onto his stomach and paddled in the way only an all-powerful creator of such places could and was delighted to look back over his shoulder and see the wake thrown out to both sides as he hurled up and down canyons and down the impoundment until he reached the temporary dam.
He paused there and stood upright, braced against the current flowing over the dam, and made the decision that this magnificent creation--partly his and partly the work of the natural world--must come to be. Reluctantly, he changed his float quotient and he grew and floated back to his workroom.
He reached down his hand and brushed the temporary fill away causing the impoundment to drain and disappointedly went to his bed chamber and caught some shuteye.
The morning of the seventh day dawned lovely as did every day in Heaven. The Lord awakoke refreshed and full of excitement and without regard for it being the day of rest, he threw on his robe, jumped into his sandals and without bothering to bathe or shave, dashed into the work room, threw open the curtains and jumped down into the garden.
The woman was awake; the snake curled around her leg and smiled. She had an apple in her hand and was trying to convince the man that the apple was great and that he should eat some of it because she needed him—bad—but he was having none of it.
The Lord stepped in, removed the Chihuahua from the man’s arms, took the apple from the woman and told the man that he had to eat the apple because he had an assignment that must be started immediately and it would take a lot of people like him to accomplish and the only way that would happen was if he ate the danged apple and gave the woman a lot of flowers and special attention.
And that, dear children, is how the Lord of Earth and Heaven created Lake Powell on the seventh day.
Beth? Little John?”
And on the Seventh Day, the Lord of the Earth and Heavens Created Lake Powell
It was a pleasant evening on the Lake. Little Beth and Little John were very tired from a long day of swimming, fishing, and playing in the mud and sand. But, the adrenaline was flowing and they weren’t able to sleep. Beth asked their dad, Tom, how Lake Powell had come to be and he told them.
“Okay, Dear Children, this is the real story.” Beth and Little John yawned and snuggled under the covers in their cabin on the houseboat.
Tom, began, “The Lord was very tired late that Saturday night, the sixth and final day of creation. Being all-powerful has its drawbacks, one of them being that all-powerful can get wearing after a while—thus, the whole Idea of creating a seventh day to rest. He looked forward with glee to hang the sign on his bedroom door that said, ‘Do not disturb.’ The sign was required because his family, mostly young men and women and children like you, were full of ideas and energy and were constantly going on at him about increasing the size of the world or perhaps adding an additional moon to create a more balanced image in the night time sky. But the Lord was weary and shushed them all as he trundled off to his chambers. Just one day off, he thought, that’s all, just one day.
He snuggled down into his freshly washed sheets and laid his head on his pillow which had been customized specifically to guarantee a sound sleep. As he let the stress and thrills of creation, and the resultant overload of adrenaline ooze away, he pondered his work. He loved all of it—the mountains, the valleys, the fiords, and the volcanoes—all of it. He wasn’t sure about the two creatures he’d plunked down in the gorgeous garden, the crowning glory of his last couple of days—the garden—not the two who were there in it. ‘Have I gone too far putting them there without making them work for it? Yes, it is a risk, but what’s done is done.’
Soon, he was distant from the big ideas of his family and found himself in a dream, floating all alone and far away from the difficult work of the prior six days. He liked the feeling of floating. Of course when he was awake, he could float or go anywhere he wanted because he was, after all, all-powerful, but this dream-floating was different. He wasn’t creating the movement, something else was. It was a gentle up and down motion and not in his control. Yes, that was it, the floating was moving him. It was a delicious sensation and just as he was starting to get his sleepy head around the whole experience, he awoke. Even the Lord needed to make a middle of the night trip to the small bathroom just off his chambers.
When he returned, he snuggled even deeper into his covers and tried very hard to pick up on that same floating-dream, but to no avail. So, though it was very early on that seventh day, he got out of bed, put on his robe, and tiptoed out into the hallway. None of his children were there and that pleased him. It was not a surprise that they were still asleep because his children were normally awake until all hours chatting and talking about how clever they were and how they would do the whole six days differently and how maybe the old man should retire and leave the lord business to them.
He’d offered the job to them, but the arguments that ensued about which of them should be the chief soon made them realize that it was better to be in a position of critic of the old man’s work than to have to defend their own. So, he smiled as he heard the deep breathing and snoring coming from his children’s rooms as he walked down the halls to his work chamber.
He sat on his most comfortable chair and swept away the curtains exposing the new world to his all-powerful, vision. He zoomed in on the garden and as expected those two were also fast asleep, tummies round from a day of eating the fruits and vegetables that spontaneously appeared. The male had his arms wrapped around a Chihuahua that was snoring in synchronization and the female--drool coming from the corner of her perfect mouth--had a snake curled up on her shoulder, seemingly whispering in her ear. The Lord couldn’t remember if snakes actually slept, but the one he created was non-poisonous, so perhaps it didn’t really matter.
The dream about floating pestered him as he tried to actually rest on that seventh day. He wanted to rest all day, but he stared at the earth while drinking some cold juice taken from his work room fridge. Creative thoughts floated around in his head like dandelion seeds in a breeze.
He couldn’t shake the idea that he’d seen something down there on the world that was not quite right and called for his construction manager to bring in the world plans.
He wiped a drop of Camaldafarge juice from the corner of his mouth, put his napkin down, and spread out the world plans as his construction manager stood by, sleepily shifting from foot to foot and checking his watch. The Lord studied the plans intently and there it was--or perhaps more correctly stated, there it wasn’t.
With the relevant plans sheet in hand and vision zoomed in to a certain place, he turned his head from the world and then to the plans, and back to the world. ‘A crack, a crack that isn’t on the plans,’ he thought.
The construction manager validated that indeed there was no specification for a crack in that area. It was specifically stated on the plans that the area would be flat, dry, and saved for future development. The construction chief had no explanation for the crack, but suggested that it represented no danger to the world and perhaps when future development was specified, it could be filled in or kept as a feature.
The Lord was only mildly satisfied with the answer, and gave himself a pat on the back for knowing the world so completely that he could remember such a small deviation from the plan.
The manager reminded the Lord that this was a rest day and all of Heaven was waiting for day eight when the Lord would announce the next big project.
The Lord dismissed the underling and trundled back to his sleeping chamber, stretched out and closed his eyes, but sleep wouldn’t come. The crack bothered him no end.
Once again he put on his robe and went back to his work chamber, swept back the curtain, zoomed in on the crack and meditated. Tweaking his vision a little bit more, he saw water in the crack.
The water made him feel a little better because he liked water a lot. His children had criticized the use of so much water because it was difficult to transport and that rocks and dust were already floating around the construction site and just needed to be packed on. But, the Lord ignored them and water became his most important world architectural tool. In fact, the plans called for the place to be covered with it from the earliest days of construction.
Yes, there was some water there, but the crack was very long and ‘kind of boring,’ he thought. Oh, the earth was covered with many planned cracks, but this one due to some mistake, just didn’t have the visual pop that his other crack designs provided. One end of the crack pretty much looked the same as the other end.
As he was known to do--too often in the minds of the construction folks--the Lord reached out his finger and touched the crack, tracing it as it ran down towards one of the great seas. Of course, when he did that, the crack widened a bit. He liked the effect. So, looking around to make sure none of the construction people had slipped in, he pushed a little harder here and there to add a little variety to the crack. ‘Much better,’ he thought, ‘But still not quite right.’ He was pleased with the details he’d added to the crack and seriously considered just opening the whole thing up wide and deep and creating an inland sea. But, he didn’t want to do battle with the family and the construction people over the logistics of more water, so he set that idea aside.
Then, it occurred to him that he could create a sort of inland sea by simply damming up the crack in a spot or two and letting the backed up water spread out a bit.
He looked carefully along it and found a place that if dammed up, might create a nice body of water, not a sea, but a lovely major water feature that could easily be seen, even without his zooming powers. He gently reached down and using the tip of his finger as a plug, poked it into the crack and waited.
Tears came into his eyes as he saw the water spread out much wider and further than he’d imagined. It was beautiful he pulled his finger out and called for his construction manager to come look. Of course when he removed his finger, the water ran out so he had to stick his finger back in.
The underling agreed that it was magnificent but there was no way to create a permanent dam that wouldn’t just wash out and undo the artistic intent of the Lord. He also reminded the Lord of his own rule of creation, ‘no all-powerful interference allowed after the end of the sixth day.’ ‘Drats!’ Said the Lord to no one in particular.
After the underling had left the work chamber, the Lord walked to the door and locked it. He thought of his dream and how he was floating, not because of being all-powerful, but because something else was causing the pleasant up and down sensation.
In all the eons that he’d been creating wondrous things with water on them, the thought that he should give up control of his own movement to whatever the water might do was intriguing.
He had visited the world many times and actually stood on the solid ground, but water had always been a visual thing for him and he’d never ventured into or onto it.
He couldn’t resist and put his finger down on the crack again, scooping soil and rocks into the very spot where he had poked his finger. The water filled and overflowed the temporary dam. Pleased, the Lord shrunk himself down and using his all-powerful powers shrunk smaller and floated down to the shoreline just created by the temporary stoppage of the flowing water.
From his new vantage point he stared at the water and touched it first with one foot, then the other and adjusted his float factor so that he weighed just enough to let the water support him yet not so much that he would sink. He began to stroll across the water and noticed he was floating, just like in his dream. The water moved gently along and lifted and lowered him in the most pleasant way.
Then he looked up and what he saw caused him to lose his balance and he fell down onto the surface of the water. It was magnificent. This crack and the water created one of the most wondrous things he’d ever seen and, other than stopping up the water, he had had little to do with it.
There were magnificent stone formations rising hundreds of times his own miniature height. Other canyons spread out everywhere, each with its own variety of unimaginable beauty. The water and the light and the colors and the sensations were overwhelming even to His godly senses.
He rolled over onto his stomach and paddled in the way only an all-powerful creator of such places could and was delighted to look back over his shoulder and see the wake thrown out to both sides as he hurled up and down canyons and down the impoundment until he reached the temporary dam.
He paused there and stood upright, braced against the current flowing over the dam, and made the decision that this magnificent creation--partly his and partly the work of the natural world--must come to be. Reluctantly, he changed his float quotient and he grew and floated back to his workroom.
He reached down his hand and brushed the temporary fill away causing the impoundment to drain and disappointedly went to his bed chamber and caught some shuteye.
The morning of the seventh day dawned lovely as did every day in Heaven. The Lord awakoke refreshed and full of excitement and without regard for it being the day of rest, he threw on his robe, jumped into his sandals and without bothering to bathe or shave, dashed into the work room, threw open the curtains and jumped down into the garden.
The woman was awake; the snake curled around her leg and smiled. She had an apple in her hand and was trying to convince the man that the apple was great and that he should eat some of it because she needed him—bad—but he was having none of it.
The Lord stepped in, removed the Chihuahua from the man’s arms, took the apple from the woman and told the man that he had to eat the apple because he had an assignment that must be started immediately and it would take a lot of people like him to accomplish and the only way that would happen was if he ate the danged apple and gave the woman a lot of flowers and special attention.
And that, dear children, is how the Lord of Earth and Heaven created Lake Powell on the seventh day.
Beth? Little John?”