Knee Buttons - Short Story / Religious / Humorous

And the gods regarded their creation, and saw that it was good.

The prototype, without gender, light of life not yet present in the eyes, stood mechanically, rose several feet above ground and turned without blemish before them in the air, arms outstretched, legs slightly parted.  

It was a team of two gods that had created the prototype. It had been hard work, to be sure. They had known all along how they wanted their creation, their most powerful to date, to turn out, but making the fundamental pictures a final reality was a different story. The god’s early training had included subjects that we might alternatively excitedly embrace or from which we might in terror cringe. In fact, although there were aspects of the training that had truly challenged them, since there was no time frame (what is time?), and since there were no other constraints on them, even the more difficult subjects had been utterly enjoyable to this team of two. As the gods had advanced in experience and knowledge, mastering to a degree impossible in common experience the subjects of physics, mathematics, philosophy and ethics, as well as the arts of pottery and painting among other mediums, they had been tested. They had, more accurately, tested themselves. They had had fun, for as they gained their knowledge, they tested it by creating. There was recently the task of organizing materials in space into planets and stars. They became good at this; enjoying the lights and colors dancing in the firmament which gave their mute approbation, as well as luminosity, to their exploration. Once this was no longer a challenge, they moved on to habitat creation. In other words, the stars and planets had been challenging and fun for a while, but even gods get bored simply manipulating material. It could be likened to the taking of dictation for a person new to the process. At first, challenging and interesting, but quickly mastered and as any mastered subject, eventually becomes drudgery. So they chose one particular planet among those they had created, cooled it, created water and a certain air mixture with which they were familiar and then worked towards the end of placing life on the planet. The first complex life they created life was lichens. They created wonderfully colored ones, but the fact that they had been created at all by the gods caused them immeasurable joy, no matter their appearance. The lichens were alive, by their own creation! From there, there had been meadows and then fields and then mountains of flowers.

“Enough, already,” the one god had proclaimed one day to the other, “of the flowers.”

The other god just smiled sweetly, picked a bunch of his favorites, and painted a grassy hillside with them. He smiled, nearly chuckling.

The ambulatory creations, however, were the most fascinating to them both, and they never tired of seeing their own creations move from one place to another. Where would they go next? How would the spark of life that they had given this particular arrangement of material be used? What motivated this amoeba to do this? What made this protozoa do that? The gods looked on, enthralled.

More and more powerful creations, each similarly imbued with the power to reposition itself independent of the gods will became, in a sense, the entertainment of the gods. They watched after them all, cats and elephants, birds and lizards, insects and fish, amazed when one species moved from one place to another, enraptured when each species perpetuated itself. All their creations did what they were programmed to do. In other words, all the god’s creations to this point had been given general direction and they all worked perfectly within those parameters.

One day, the smaller god said to the other, “I have an idea.”

When she had explained it, the larger god nodded.

They would make yet another creation, one that possessed many of the gods own powers, that would rule all the creations on the earth that had been formed, and then the gods would move on to yet another planet and start all over again.

“But,” warned the first, “it would not be ethical to put all our creations in the care of one master who would possibly use its will to encroach on the others will unnecessarily.”

“We must, then,” said the other, “create within this master form the desire to seek our council. We can then direct it.”

So they had began creating the most powerful of their creations, and when it was done, but not yet alive, they smiled, as you learned at the beginning of the story.

But the larger god now frowned. “How will we know when this being wants to speak to us? This being will certainly desire direction; he is powerful enough to know that he does not know everything.”   

The smaller god considered this. “We also have the problem of this being knowing what questions to ask at all. But these are not real issues. We will endow this most powerful creation with our sense of justice. When this one perceives that justice is not in order, he will be troubled and will seek our council. We can then direct his thoughts not only about the answer, but about which questions to ask.”

The larger one smiled back. The small god, he thought, is so wise.

“Furthermore,” the smaller god continued, “we wish the attitude of this most powerful creation to be one of humility. Otherwise, when we give council, it will not be heeded.”

“Good point,” said the larger god.

“I am smaller than you.”

“Yes?” answered the larger god.

“When one looks upward to another, he is in the physical attitude of submission. As I analyzed our past experience together in mortality, I came to realize that the mere fact that I had to physically look up to you, since you were taller, helped put me in a state of humility. Like a child to a father.”

“So you are saying that it is important that our most powerful creation be in a position of humility when he is asking our direction, and that somehow making him look upwards to us will increase his chances of making decisions that will enhance, rather than diminish, the experience of our other creations?”

“Yes,” agreed the smaller god, pleasantly, “that is precisely what I am saying.”

“You are so wise,” said the larger god, smiling.

“Thank you. You were wise for choosing me so long ago, in mortality” she said mirthfully.

Her wit always made him feel light and happy inside. He couldn’t suppress another smile as he continued. “So then, we shall let this most powerful creation know that we are above the earth whereon he shall dwell. And this will make him look upward when he wishes to speak to us.”

“That is good,” said the smaller god, admiring the fact that he understood her intent so perfectly.

“However, I think we can improve on this idea. Let’s make it so this being makes himself even smaller than he normally would be when he approaches us. To himself, he will be large and will naturally at times consider himself to be our equal, as such will be the nature of this most powerful creation when he is away from our presence. In these times he will need our counsel more than ever and yet with this attitude, he will be least likely to accept our counsel.”

“That is true,” said the smaller god. “You always see so far ahead!”

“Thank you. It is nice of you to say so. To continue, in order to do this, when this most powerful creation seeks our counsel, let us give him the inclination to bend his knees; to make himself smaller.”

“And bow his head, as well!” exclaimed the smaller god, excitedly.

The larger god considered this and frowned. “Bow his head? Look down? And yet we agreed earlier to make him aware of our presence above, precisely so that he would look up when he sought our counsel. How will looking down help him?”

“We will still bestow upon him the knowledge that we are above the earth, but with his eyes cast downward, he will be further in an attitude of humility. To himself, he will look even smaller and more dependent on counsel from somewhere other than himself.”

The larger god looked at the other in admiration. “How insightful,” he said.

“I am happy that you think I am. Finally,” the smaller god continued, “we will not prohibit our most powerful creation from praying in whatever physical position he may be in, but we will place upon his knees a button so that when he kneels and this button hits the earth, it will immediately summon us, to know that our most powerful creation seeks our counsel. Our angels will carry any message from us to them most expeditiously in that case.”

“Precisely, my perfect and dear friend,” said the larger god, bowing his head towards her. “We will make it so!”

And that is how we came to have kneecaps!