When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered

around Aaron and said, come, make us gods who will go before us.

As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened

to him.

Aaron answered them, take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters

are wearing and bring them to me.

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning

it with a tool.

Then they said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, tomorrow there

will be a festival to the Lord.

So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship

offerings.

Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

This is the word of the Lord.

In the beginning, when there was only silence and void, God creates, like Bach, Mozart,

or Beethoven.

But he weaves together the threads of life and gravity with the suspense of spring and

autumn with profound pleasure and promise.

Explosions of life spring up into the vacuum of space, twisted, rock, and gas, galaxies

of dust and debris form a cosmos so big that it bends the tracks of time itself.

...