HOLY LAUGHTER AT OUR FOLLY.

The One in heaven, laughs. Psalm 2: 4 

“2026 is just the beginning. It will inevitably get worse. It will get worse and worse and worse to the point where I’m afraid, we’ll be passing the limits of adaptation.”

“This is not just about the climate, but civilisation buckling under the weight of its own complexity. Given worsening inequality, political polarisation, falling fertility, resource shortages and global conflicts, Wilson argues that we are hurtling towards the same end as ancient Rome, the Mayan civilisation and every other sophisticated society before us.”

RELUCTANT.

This week I was reluctant to start a new post. Something held me back. When I left rural Tweed, now some 17 months ago, I took along about 100 books, almost all non-fiction, as I knew that at Martindale an extensive library would provide me with lots of fiction to choose from. 

Why reluctant?

The editors of this Bonhoeffer book chose as an opening statement his prologue to the year 1943 (he was hanged in 1945) in which they selected as introduction his foray entitled Of Folly. I was struck by this, because it is exactly ‘Folly” that dominates our time, exemplified by Donald Trump.

Here follow some excerpts of Bonhoeffer’s words.

“Folly is a more dangerous enemy to the good than evil. Evil always carries the seeds of its own destruction, but against folly we have no defence. We shall nevetry to convince a fool by reason, for it is both useless and dangerous. This much is certain, that it- foolishness – is a moral rather than an intellectual defect. The fool will be capable of any evil and, at the same time, incapable of seeing that it is evil. We may as well abandon all attempts to convince the fool. The Bible’s words that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Psalm 111: 10) tell us that a person’s inward liberation to live a responsible life before God is the only real cure for folly.” So far Bonhoeffer.

Our folly.

Donald Trump is not the only person afflicted with folly.  We also have been fools. We have been warned. Repeatedly. Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927) was a famous Swedish scientist and a founder of physical chemistry. He won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was the first to explain how carbon dioxide warms the Earth. That was more than a century ago.

James E. Hansen is an American climate scientist and former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In 2006, Hansen was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. Now Hansen works as Director of Climate Science in Columbia University. In his keynote at ATLAS25 James Hansen warns of the dangerous feedback loops of Earth Systems Tipping Points (ESTP). Hansen’s research and statements have been a controversial talking point among the science community, the media and even some of IPCC lead authors. Hansen’s message is clear – We’re running out of time.

El Niño.

The developing strong-to-super El Niño event will significantly disrupt global environmental conditions by raising global temperatures, shifting rainfall paths, and causing widespread ecological stress through intense droughts, floods, and marine disruptions. The situation is dire and unacceptably dangerous.

And then there is AI, the modern equivalent of the ancient Tower of Babel.

Now, mid 2026.

Today we see the result of our fight against the earth, which, actually, is a fight against God. Bonhoeffer was dead-on when his conclusion in his Ethics, was that God is synonymous with his creation, just as Shakespeare and J.S. Bach, are known to us through their legacies, their artistic output, their inspired creations. That also applies to God: The entire Bible emphasizes God as the Creator of the earth, God’s cherished work of art, fashioned to sustain and enrich and amaze humankind into eternity, forever and ever.

We, the human race, the so gifted creatures of God, the crown of creation, the summum of artistry and the culmination of God’s shaping capacity, we, resembling God in many ways, created in his image, capable of miracles, now extremely exampled in AI, we have gone the way of all human effort: Self-delusion, self-glorification, self-deification, and our Fall, our suicidal self-immolation, is now all too evident. Fools, we are. Already there are voices of idolatry. AI ethicist Eleanor Drage believes that to thrive alongside artificial intelligence, humans need to recognise AI’s “humanity”, and by that she means AI’s deification.

Laughter in Heaven.

“The One in Heaven laughs”. What do we think? Where are we going? Take on God? Challenge Him? Try out who is superior? Maranatha, Lord, Show them. What is wisdom? The fear of the Lord. Love God, love creation.

FROM CHAOS TO COSMOS TO CHAOS TO COSMOS.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1: 2.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth … ” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Revelation 21: 1

A few days ago, at breakfast time, I asked a table companion: “Describe the world today”. His one-word answer: Chaos.

“Chaos” was what God saw, when, ‘in the beginning’, peeking through the darkness, He detected total disorder, suggesting unpredictability, intimating structure-less matter, masking mass without meaning.

Chaos is the opposite of ‘cosmos’, whose foremost feature is being ‘rule-based and having a law-full order’. God/Cosmos embodies empathy, personifies proficiency and predictability. That long Psalm, 119, is an ode to God’s greatness: “Righteous are you, O Lord, and your laws are right”.

Today Chaos dominates and causes crises galore, and that in a world coping with dangers so immense that the globe is on fire, because we, all 8+ billion of us, have become estranged from God, estranged from creation, estranged from reason and common sense.

How to re-constitute Cosmos.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, himself a victim of lawlessness, unceremoniously hanged by Trump’s predecessor, Adolf Hitler, ventured an audacious definition of God, equating God and the world as one. I fervently endorse his strategy, as it makes ‘theology’ a daily, intimate part of LIFE, totally in line with Jesus’ message, “Choose Life, and that to the FULL.”

Karen Armstrong, in her powerful book, “Sacred Nature”, writes that God is present everywhere in the natural world. Again: take note Theology: Wake Up! The Bible will no longer count in the renewed Creation to come, when the Chaos we created will become the Christ-centered Cosmos.

History simply is Chaos become Cosmos through God, become Chaos, through us, and become Cosmos again, through Christ.

The laws of Ecology.

God, in his wisdom, has built into the laws of creation that

nothing ever disappears,

that nature/creatin knows best,

that everything is connected to everything else, and

that nothing comes free.

A world on Fire.

Today God’s judgements are at work. Unavoidable. One Hundred Percent Guaranteed.

Genesis describes how ‘in the beginning’, untold billions of years ago, God saw chaos. Psalm 33: 9 simply says: “God spoke and it came to be”. And Creation was conceived.

Unbelievable. Unexplainable. Beyond conception. Far above human reason. God spoke and Chaos became Cosmos: a chaotic mass, became a rule-based, law-governed entity, livable perfection, which God called ‘good’ seven times.

And then, miracle of miracles, he deeded this perfection to us, the human race. Genesis 9 confirms this in a solemn covenant.

Then what? Sin. Sin?  What is S.I.N?

Sin is taking God’s name in vain. That has nothing to do with God’s name. I am known by my name: Egbert Drewes Hielema. I try to live up to that name. God, however, is beyond. Beyond a name, beyond a portrait, beyond conception. God, in his goodness to be known, left his name on every created item: the earth and the fulness thereof, the air, the seas and what they contain. We know him first by his creation, that wonderful book, that entity, the Cosmos.

However.

Due to our lack of environmental discipline, Ocean heat threatens to destabilize sediments at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, causing massive eruptions of methane contained there, highly flammable, in the form of methane hydrates and free gas held underneath these hydrates. 

Now we are in the era of AI, the zenith of human ingenuity: “We are racing into the unknown. We are creating technologies we cannot control,” is just one of the warnings.

In building ever more advanced AI, we may be creating a new type of being – and this could be the most consequential thing our species has ever done. Yet we have essentially no plan for how to navigate this process ethically. That, by any reckoning, is insane. Are we creating a kind of being that matters morally? Are AI systems conscious, in some way? And, if they aren’t now, might they become soon?

Questions.

If these systems matter morally, the implications are staggering. Would we need to pay Chat GPT for its services? Would they deserve a voice in how they are governed? If even some of these answers are yes, entire industries and legal systems would need to be rethought.

No wonder we prefer not to ask. And when forced to consider it, those industries will likely move the goalposts, always setting the bar for moral patient-hood just above wherever AI systems happen to be.

“If you respect nature, nature will respect you.” This is the ancient wisdom of many Indigenous people.

Robin Wall, in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, quotes Joanne Macy: “until we can grieve for our planet, we cannot love it – grieving is a sign of spiritual health.”

Prayer is needed, prayer for Parousia, prayer for Christ’s return.

Pray without ceasing. Pray for the Cosmos to come. Today.

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

                                                                        Revelation 21: 5.

TA PANTA.

Ta Panta is no baby talk, imitating a 2-years old trying to say something. If it is Greek to you, you are correct: the words appear in that precious passage of Colossians 1: 15-20, of which verse 16 says: For in him all things were created: “All things” = Ta Panta.

The same ‘Panta’ expression also appears in the above text, ‘everything’. But… yes, the eternal ‘but’: but something has changed since Jesus created ‘all things’ perfectly. Now, in describing the world situation 2,000 years later, these same ‘all things’ need total renewal: Jesus added an affirmation, such as ‘You can bet your life on this: that renewal is coming.’

Long ago, God, in his wisdom, or perhaps in his foolishness – The Bible does use that term somewhere – gave creation to humanity. Psalm 115: 16 plainly says: The highest heaven belongs to the Lord, but the earth he has given to humanity. God trusted us to do the right thing.

This text reminds me of 2 Corinthians 12, where the apostle Paul recalls an unforgettable experience: He was somehow allowed to have a glimpse of God’s abode, and, in his words, was lifted up to ‘the third heaven’.

In Paul’s understanding, the heavens consist of three parts: First ‘the air’ in which we live, that section under the ozone layer; then the second ‘heaven’ where the stars and planets play their parts, and beyond there, the third heaven, there’s where God lives in ‘inapproachable light, who nobody can see and nobody has seen’. (1 Timothy 6: 16).

That’s why the English translation of the Lord’s Prayer is incorrect: In the Greek the word ‘heaven’ is plural, correctly translated in the French, German and Dutch version of the prayer the Lord taught us. The true reading therefore, is: Our Father who art in the ‘heavens’.

Back to today, where the vexing question is: “Is AI, Good or Bad, a sign of the last days?” I wonder, what role is AI going to play in Ta Panta.

The short answer: A lot.

AI will replace God. Try to, anyway. Look at the latest: a warning that the effects of A.I. could be “larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame.”  

Actually, AI and its effects, reminds me of the New Creation, and also of Genesis, the conditions in the aftermath of the Fall.

Before the Fall, the human pair simply ate from the great variety of the fruits, available from the multitude of trees present in Paradise. Felt hungry? There is a cure for it, hanging out, begging for consumption.

BUT.

That ‘but’ again. Adam and Eve, in their impatience, in their lack of reverence, in their lapse of gratitude, in their failure to reciprocate, in their omission to respond in kind, by displaying a degree of superiority, they offended the Giver, the Creator.   

The result?

Paradise lost. Trees Gone. Their access to perfect living vanished. Agriculture ascended. First digging up the earth, now done with monstrous machines.

The glaring irony is that, before the settlers came, the prairies supported millions of buffaloes, eating prairie grass. We now ‘cultivate’ that same region to feed cattle. Stupidity in spades.

So, how will this foolishness end?

Are the indigenous Hopi people correct? These native Americans have a prophecy that the 4th world, which is us, would end in fire.

The Father, in the beginning, called Creation ‘very good, seven times. Now, in the End, in Revelation 21, surveying the world scene, Jesus discovers that everything, ta Panta, has turned from good to bad. He sees that the very air, every drop of water, each molecule of earth, has become contaminated, and need to be made new. While I am writing this, the sky is an ominous orange, due to forest fires. Is this a sign of the end?

There is hope!

Revelation 22 pictures – as in the beginning – how fruit trees each month offer a different menu. One of the most intriguing texts of the Bible, is found in this very last chapter: On each side of the river stood the Tree of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

Made New?  Not new, but re-newed. How? And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

“The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Google tells me that Earth is home to approximately 3.04 trillion trees. This breaks down to about 422 trees for every living person. However, this number has been heavily impacted by human activity, representing a 46% decrease from the roughly 6 trillion trees that existed before the dawn of human civilization.

I believe that the longevity of early humans, measuring in hundreds of years, was due to the rich air we need every few seconds. Just imagine the hundreds of trillions of leaves accumulating, doing their medicinal function.

A very good friend sent me a new book by Robin Wall Kimmerer: “The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World”.

Robin Wall is a true prophetess. She, more than almost all preachers, describes  the biblical approach to living in these last days, where war, heat, pollution, dominate.

Fortunately: He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

NEWNESS IS NEEDED.

AI versus EI

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

                                                                        Revelation 21: 5.

I am on a discovery trip this week. Exploring human wisdom, versus divine wisdom. Or, basically, God versus Satan, the perennial battle that has   dominated human history from its inception.

Already Adam and Eve were duped by this distinction. We are now witnessing the culmination of this duel, in the form of AI=Artificial Intelligence versus CI = Creational Intelligence.  Adam and Eve, in their infancy, so to say, utterly green in dealing with evil were faced with this test. They failed.

There is a striking example of this eternal battle – it never stopped – in early Genesis. There in Genesis 2: 9 trees are described: “pleasing to the eye and good for food,” aesthetics before utility. In the next chapter, Genesis 3: 6, the order is reversed: “Trees good for food, and pleasing to the eye.”

Greed has replaced beauty, or, in today’s parlance, “Artificial Intelligence has outed Creational Intelligence.” It’s that very battle that is reaching a climax today, and it started in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the world then, ruled by God’s love for Creation. How about data centres?

Caution is called for.

The warnings about AI are multiplying: “Artificial intelligence poses a “Hiroshima”-style risk to humanity if governments do not agree to curb how it is developed”, the British foreign secretary has warned. Just one of the many cries for caution. How about Data Centres?

There is a task here for the Church, and Pope Leo has made a good beginning, citing AI as the modern version of The Tower of Babel.

However, this time, in an age of human ‘maturity’, God will not intervene as he did with the Babel story: He will let matters develop, fully well knowing the End.”I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. (Deuteronomy 32: 20). That’s us he is referring to.

Back to making new.

 

I have this theory, based on the words of Augustine, that early church father, who wrote, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not”.

 

So, when Jesus categorically states that he will make everything new, he, in reality, also says, “I want you to start that renewal process!” Us? Slaves to technology?

 

AI: Good or Bad? How about Data Centres?

 

In a certain sense, I approve of AI, relying on 1 Thessalonians 5: 21: Examine all things; retain that which is good. But what really makes me tick, truly fires my adrenalin, is: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”, as the first chapter of Proverbs tell us.

 

A familiar text, I admit.  I interpret it to mean for us to be constantly awed by the intricacy of creation, and always, always, without letup, keep its wellbeing in mind, while living LIFE to the full. “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous”, writes Paul in Romans. Loving Creation means Loving God.

 

However.

I also agree with Luther, when he wrote, “Human wisdom is more inclined to underwrite the Law of Moses, than the law of the Gospel”. Can you recall that law? Of course, you can! “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

I believe that finally – perhaps too late – we have learned to understand the Jesus’ summation of the law of love, and interpret it a bit more concretely. After all: There is John 3: 16, which explains God’s Love and how we must follow Jesus in loving ‘the Cosmos’.

Frankly, we tend to merely pay lip service Jesus’ sacrifice, as our entire lifestyle is wrapped up in doing the opposite. We now tend to major in minors, such as we having sexual ethics dictated by the social and political concerns of the imperial cultures among which Christianity has made its bed, rather than loving one’s neighbor, regardless.

I have been reading many commentaries on AI, and have become increasingly convinced that we are employing a force that has the potential to challenge the ultimate authority, just as the infamous Tower of Babel threatened to do.

AI has the analytical ability to infiltrate all the contents of our communications, and report back sophisticated questions about our whereabouts and activities: Just like God, it can read our most secret writings! The result will be a kind of supercharged societal level of chilling effects where fear, self-censorship and groupthink reign, and dissent, creativity and innovation become increasingly rare. Jesus sets us free. AI enslaves.

Jesus will make ‘everything’ new. We must start that process now.

Yes: Jesus makes all things new. We are simply called to be ‘followers of ‘newness’. Our openness for things new distinguishes Christians from all the established religions which are set in stone for all ages to come. We always must look for LIFE and its implications, where newness also dominates.

Even though AI is fast,

In EI race, it comes in last.

EI is Infinite. AI is finite.

PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD.

Where John the Baptizer was the Pro-Christ Prophet and the outspoken Pro-Creation fighter, living on wild honey and carbon-rich locusts, and so ‘prepared the Way of the Lord’, Donald Trump is doing the same in the exact opposite way: Anti-Christ and Anti-Creation, and so rushing in what 2 Peter: 10 prophesied: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will burn with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

With our world today centered on “Football/Soccer”, I feature this week an episode from my book DAY WITHOUT END, picturing a possible sport scenario in which humans and animals interact quite concretely.

A REALLY UNIQUE ‘FOOTBALL’ GAME.

The sounds of many people and animals can no longer escape us: the roaring voices of lions, the trumpeting of elephants, the snorting sound of bears are plainly audible. Curiosity gets the better of us. What could be happening?

Ina large valley, we see animals: lions, tigers and bears. Huge bears, grizzly bears. They are all in motion, running, jumping, kicking. They are kicking a ball! Elephants are trumpeting, calling on all people who are arriving in droves. The air is electrified with excitement. I ask some people nearby what is happening.

“There is going to be a game,” they reply, “Some sort of ball competition between lions and tigers.”

Sure enough, bears wait at either end to be the goalies. Elephants extend their trunks until they touch, forming the goal-posts. Monkeys are ready to fetch the ball when it goes out of bounds or when somebody scores.

I see te animals huddle together around a man who stands in the centre, explaining the rules.

The session is over. A few lions need some clarification, but the elephants are off already, wobbling quickly to the ends of the field. The grizzlies race them for it. A pair of tigers try out the goalie who proves to be quite agile in catching the ball, standing on his hind legs. While he stretches, he almost touches the extended trunks. The elephants do not move one inch.

Who is the referee, I wonder, and who are manning the lines? Then I see some eagles overhead. One sharp-eyed bird is hovering over the centre. He holds a large ball in his claws. Other eagles are flying over the edges of the field, apparently on the watch for any out of bounds ball. I am sure that no infraction will escape their attention.

But who is the referee? Is it the person who has given the instruction to the animals?

I count twenty tigers and eighteen lions on the field. I hear a sharp whistle and promptly a number of animals leave and settle on the side lines. The others arrange themselves in a proper position, just as in the many human soccer games I have watched.

I can sense the tension. The referee? “It is Jesus,” the man next to me whispers, as Jesus walks to the centre. He places the ball, which the huge eagle has dropped in his arms, on the dotted spot. The eagle remains overhead, slowly circling above the middle of the field.

Now there is a moment of silence. Total silence to honour the Silence who made all this possible. Even the crickets are quiet. Then the birds begin to sing, one first. A nightingale, so pure, so clear, so uplifting, that soon other birds join in. Still the ball lies there, untouched.

I listen to the concert, but my eyes are locked on the ball and so are the eyes of thousands of onlookers.

How long will this last?

The animals tense up. They stand, waiting for the signal to start.

Jesus looks up to the eagle, who wags his wings.

Then the whistle blows.

The centre lion looks up. He moves his head from right to left to make doubly sure that his forwards are in place. His tail whips up and down. Then he jumps, and with his hind legs skillfully passes the ball to the lion behind him, while he runs way ahead to the goal.

The game is on. The ball sails through the sky, a long pass to the left corner.

A tiger intercepts it on his head and swiftly passes it to another teammate who lets it roll to the goalie. The grizzly throws a long, high ball to the middle of the field.

The crowd is in motion too, following the game with rapt attention. I see Jesus run up and down the field with a swiftness I had never thought him capable of, but then I had never pictured Jesus as a referee in a game such as this.

The whistle blows. The eagle on the right line has detected an offside: the tigers have been a bit too eager.

Free kick for the lions.

The tension mounts, a pleasant tension, as winning is not important. Only the sheer delight of the playing counts, the display of skill, the marvel of animals acquiring such talent. Not a circus in the old world could ever have remotely approached this extra-ordinary entertainment: so delightful are the skillful passes, the marvelous motions of running, the vaulting through the air in pursuit of an elusive ball. It all adds up to a scene of amazing cheer and amusement.

I have always been an ardent soccer fan, have even attended international soccer matches. But never a game such as this.

It makes my legs itch to go out and play soccer as well and when half time comes and the animals go to the sidelines, the eagle picks up the ball and throws it to me. How, I wonder, does he know my wish? Never mind. I dribble the ball to the centre, and, as if by magic twenty-one other players appear. We have a quick conference, the goalies are placed between the stalwart elephants, and we supply the half-time entertainment.

We don’t have the speed, the cunning, the agility the tigers and the lions have, but what fun! It is sheer joy to run the field, pass the ball, trying out new techniques, so easily done here because of our superior body condition and the unadulterated air.

What a joy, to run, to fly, to kick, to jump, to live. What a delight to do the impossible, to play against others who also do the impossible. The whole game is mathematically impossible, as we all are perfect players, kicking perfect shots, which cannot possibly be stopped, and yet are stopped, making perfect passes, which cannot possibly be intercepted, and yet are intercepted, as still some passes are more perfect than others.

What is perfect is the fun, the total abandon into sheer physical enjoyment, the outwitting of others, the rapturous pleasure of perfect co-ordination.

So far, the episode in my book, DAY WITHOUT END.

Look forward to THE Day.

PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD.

Where John the Baptizer was the Pro-Christ Prophet and the outspoken Pro-Creation fighter, living on wild honey and carbon-rich locusts, and so ‘prepared the Way of the Lord’, Donald Trump is doing the same in the exact opposite way: Anti-Christ and Anti-Creation, and so rushing in what 2 Peter: 10 prophesied: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will burn with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

With our world today centered on “Football/Soccer”, I feature this week an episode from my book DAY WITHOUT END, picturing a possible sport scenario in which humans and animals interact quite concretely.

A REALLY UNIQUE ‘FOOTBALL’ GAME.

The sounds of many people and animals can no longer escape us: the roaring voices of lions, the trumpeting of elephants, the snorting sound of bears are plainly audible. Curiosity gets the better of us. What could be happening?

Ina large valley, we see animals: lions, tigers and bears. Huge bears, grizzly bears. They are all in motion, running, jumping, kicking. They are kicking a ball! Elephants are trumpeting, calling on all people who are arriving in droves. The air is electrified with excitement. I ask some people nearby what is happening.

“There is going to be a game,” they reply, “Some sort of ball competition between lions and tigers.”

Sure enough, bears wait at either end to be the goalies. Elephants extend their trunks until they touch, forming the goal-posts. Monkeys are ready to fetch the ball when it goes out of bounds or when somebody scores.

I see te animals huddle together around a man who stands in the centre, explaining the rules.

The session is over. A few lions need some clarification, but the elephants are off already, wobbling quickly to the ends of the field. The grizzlies race them for it. A pair of tigers try out the goalie who proves to be quite agile in catching the ball, standing on his hind legs. While he stretches, he almost touches the extended trunks. The elephants do not move one inch.

Who is the referee, I wonder, and who are manning the lines? Then I see some eagles overhead. One sharp-eyed bird is hovering over the centre. He holds a large ball in his claws. Other eagles are flying over the edges of the field, apparently on the watch for any out of bounds ball. I am sure that no infraction will escape their attention.

But who is the referee? Is it the person who has given the instruction to the animals?

I count twenty tigers and eighteen lions on the field. I hear a sharp whistle and promptly a number of animals leave and settle on the side lines. The others arrange themselves in a proper position, just as in the many human soccer games I have watched.

I can sense the tension. The referee? “It is Jesus,” the man next to me whispers, as Jesus walks to the centre. He places the ball, which the huge eagle has dropped in his arms, on the dotted spot. The eagle remains overhead, slowly circling above the middle of the field.

Now there is a moment of silence. Total silence to honour the Silence who made all this possible. Even the crickets are quiet. Then the birds begin to sing, one first. A nightingale, so pure, so clear, so uplifting, that soon other birds join in. Still the ball lies there, untouched.

I listen to the concert, but my eyes are locked on the ball and so are the eyes of thousands of onlookers.

How long will this last?

The animals tense up. They stand, waiting for the signal to start.

Jesus looks up to the eagle, who wags his wings.

Then the whistle blows.

The centre lion looks up. He moves his head from right to left to make doubly sure that his forwards are in place. His tail whips up and down. Then he jumps, and with his hind legs skillfully passes the ball to the lion behind him, while he runs way ahead to the goal.

The game is on. The ball sails through the sky, a long pass to the left corner.

A tiger intercepts it on his head and swiftly passes it to another teammate who lets it roll to the goalie. The grizzly throws a long, high ball to the middle of the field.

The crowd is in motion too, following the game with rapt attention. I see Jesus run up and down the field with a swiftness I had never thought him capable of, but then I had never pictured Jesus as a referee in a game such as this.

The whistle blows. The eagle on the right line has detected an offside: the tigers have been a bit too eager.

Free kick for the lions.

The tension mounts, a pleasant tension, as winning is not important. Only the sheer delight of the playing counts, the display of skill, the marvel of animals acquiring such talent. Not a circus in the old world could ever have remotely approached this extra-ordinary entertainment: so delightful are the skillful passes, the marvelous motions of running, the vaulting through the air in pursuit of an elusive ball. It all adds up to a scene of amazing cheer and amusement.

I have always been an ardent soccer fan, have even attended international soccer matches. But never a game such as this.

It makes my legs itch to go out and play soccer as well and when half time comes and the animals go to the sidelines, the eagle picks up the ball and throws it to me. How, I wonder, does he know my wish? Never mind. I dribble the ball to the centre, and, as if by magic twenty-one other players appear. We have a quick conference, the goalies are placed between the stalwart elephants, and we supply the half-time entertainment.

We don’t have the speed, the cunning, the agility the tigers and the lions have, but what fun! It is sheer joy to run the field, pass the ball, trying out new techniques, so easily done here because of our superior body condition and the unadulterated air.

What a joy, to run, to fly, to kick, to jump, to live. What a delight to do the impossible, to play against others who also do the impossible. The whole game is mathematically impossible, as we all are perfect players, kicking perfect shots, which cannot possibly be stopped, and yet are stopped, making perfect passes, which cannot possibly be intercepted, and yet are intercepted, as still some passes are more perfect than others.

What is perfect is the fun, the total abandon into sheer physical enjoyment, the outwitting of others, the rapturous pleasure of perfect co-ordination.

So far, the episode in my book, DAY WITHOUT END.

Look forward to THE Day.