In the Jewish mystic tradition of Kabbalah, the Creation story begins with God’s creating the world by filling a "container" that will hold the universe. God continues to fill and doesn’t stop pouring until the container itself explodes and the universe-and God- gets broken into tiny pieces flying all over the place. In this tradition it is the work of humanity to take the shattered pieces and Tikkun alam,  "repair the world", remembering that God is also contained in the broken pieces.

I have always loved this Creation story. It speaks of a God who got carried away with Creation and the Holy that lives in even the tiniest of its pieces. It is probably why I have always loved certain kinds of art…..collage,weaving…anything that takes smaller pieces and brings them together to make something bigger, more whole, more beautiful.

The world has lost just such an artist-one who look the tiniest of pieces and created artistic order. In today’s paper the passing of Lillian Colton, famed State Fair seed artist, is reported. At ninety-five, Lillian spent years taking the tiniest of seeds and creating portraits and pictures using only natural elements. It was a Johnson family tradition to try to guess who Lillian would immortalize in seed for this year’s Fair. Lillian, who was often present at the Fair near, sometimes talked with viewers, other times worked diligently on yet another project.

I don’t know anything about Lillian’s motivation for her work. Growing up on a farm, it might have just been a natural thing to do. But I know for me, the beauty of it was somehow connected to "tikkun alam", the work of taking the small,individual shards of seed and bringing them together to create a wholer, fuller picture. These seeds-which contain the ability to grow and even bring life-are in truth filled with the goodness of God.

How might we go about the work of "repairing the world" if we remembered that indeed the Holy resides in each and every seed, atom,cell,plant,creature, human,relationship? How might we go about taking the smallest step in repairing the world if we remembered that in that action we also come to know God more wholly and fully as well?

Today, I give thanks for Lillian’s long, full life….and for her yearly reminder of how the tiniest of seeds can come together to make the fullest of pictures. May I, may each of us, have the courage to help "tikkun alam", in our own unique ways.

Have a blessed weekend…….