Looking through a book about Renaissance art a few weeks ago, I came upon Raphael's famous work, "School of Athens."  Featuring the finest minds of antiquity--Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Ptolemy, and more--this painting reminds us of the absolute wonder of the human mind and imagination. If we bear in mind that Raphael's stylistic intentions centered on fusing classical style with Christian thought, we see that he is telling us that the deepest and most glorious thought is that which drinks, drinks deeply, of the best of humankind and the best of God.  God creates us, we create in turn.  God births us, we birth in turn:  we live empowered by the continuous presence of divine purpose in the cosmos.  Though we create with our gifts, and though we envision with our human ken, we do so because, as Raphael rightly understood, over and above it all resides a power beyond knowing, a power that gives point to the profoundest of human longing. Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Ptolemy, and many others walk in the aura of an enduring divine creation.  We thank them for their minds, we thank them for their vision.  And we thank God, in all of his expressions, incarnations, and manifestations, for an existence with meaning.