“ ‘It was I who taught Ephraim how to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them’ (11:3). They did not know me. Do you?

“‘I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.’ (1:4). But they did not know me. Do you?

“I fashioned a world in love, bringing forth order from chaos and light from darkness. I filled the seas and the land and the air with life. As the climax of my work, I created human beings, casting them in my own image. In my own image I made them, male and female. But they did not know me. Do you?

“Seeking the best for them, I set the humans in a garden full of good things. I asked them to care for the garden, to keep and till the land. I bid them …