“I am the breath of the Most High, blanketing the earth like mist, filling the sky with towering clouds.
I encompass distant galaxies, and walk in the innermost abyss.
Over crest and trough, over sea and land, over every people and nation I hold sway…
Before time, at the beginning of beginnings, God created Me. And I shall remain forever…
I grew tall like a cedar in Lebanon, and like a cypress on the heights of Hermon.
I grew tall like a palm tree in En-gaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho, as a fair olive tree in a pleasant field, and grew up as a plane tree by the water.
I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and camel’s thorn, and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh, like galbanum, onyx, and storax, and like the fragrance of frankincense in the tabernacle.
Like a terebinth I spread out my branches, and my branches are glorious and graceful.
Like a vine I caused loveliness to bud, and my blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit.
I am the Mother of true love, wonder, knowledge, and holy hope.
Beyond time, I am yet given to time, a gift to all My children: to all that He has named.
Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my produce.
For the remembrance of me is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb.
Those who eat me will hunger for more, and those who drink me will thirst for more…
At first I was like a narrow stream from a river, and as a shallow brook into a garden.
I said, I will water my best garden, I will moisten my finest beds,
Then my brook became a river, and my river became a sea.
I make instruction shine forth like the dawn, its shimmering seen from afar.
I pour out teaching like prophecy, and leave it for future generations.
Know this: I do not labour for myself alone, but for all you who seek Wisdom.”
From The Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), chapter 24
Chorlton Unitarians 