Simply Amazing

I am watching Dreamworks’ “The Prince of Egypt” for perhaps the twenty-seventh time.  It is a marvelous movie, full of beautiful artwork and some of the best music anywhere.  Currently I’m at the scene with the burning bush, and it makes me think.  God introduces Himself to Moses as “I Am.”  That’s always been a confusing statement from God, at least for me.  Every time I heard this story, my impulse after hearing that statement was to ask, “You are what?”  I didn’t expect the God of the universe to introduce Himself in such a simple way.

But now that I think about it, there is no better way to do it.  That simple statement is the summary of self-awareness.  To say “I am” is to say that you know of your own existence.  This is something that we take for granted, but if you think of it, there are millions of living things in this world, which is one of millions of worlds in one of millions of galaxies in a universe too big for comprehension.  And only one species we know of has truly realized where we are.  That, in the words of John Green, is “the miracle of human consciousness,” and it really is rather miraculous, whether or not you believe in a God who gave it to us.

I’m not really trying to figure out this miracle, or answer any big life questions.  I just think it needs to be said more often.  I am.  And it’s amazing.