Taking Our Place in Creation – 4.4.22
I’ve always been captivated by Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The beautiful heavenly bodies, the contrast of light and dark, the apparent motion, the brush strokes, all together, evoke a sense of wonder, and seem to draw me into the quaint little village where I am transfixed by the magnificence of the firmament. We are captivated by beauty, particularly the beauty of creation. In his book, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith, Russ Ramsey reminds us that, “beauty whispers to our souls that there is such a thing as glory” (p.6). Ramsey further explains that beauty draws us into deeper community as we participate in shared experience, prompting the application of goodness and truth for the benefit of others (p. 9). Like a magnetic force, beauty attracts us, appealing to our senses, revealing greater truth.
Just recently, I had the opportunity to travel to several national parks out west with the senior class from our school. We visited Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Horseshoe Bend, the Grand Canyon, and had the opportunity to witness several other sights along our journey. The beauty of creation was mind-boggling, and simultaneously caused me to recognize how grand and complex creation is, and how small, yet significant I am in its scheme. Here are just a few of the wonders we were able to witness.
When I reflect on the beauty of creation that I was fortunate to witness, I am reminded of Psalm 19:
“1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”
Did you catch that? The Starry Night is declaring the glory of God. The skies are speaking, day after day, revealing knowledge. Their voice is going out to the ends of the earth, their voice without speech or words! What knowledge are they revealing? Consider Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” They speak of God’s eternal power and divine nature – to the ends of the earth. They are proclaiming His glory. The beauty of creation is attractive and compelling, and people flock to bear witness. We saw this time and again during our journey – people from varied races and cultures, socio-economic situations, young and old alike – traveling to catch a glimpse of beauty, of glory. I can’t help but think that so many of them are actually searching for something far more meaningful, the source of all beauty.
Contemplating the role of creation in declaring the glory of God humbles me. If creation is proclaiming His glory day after day and night after night, without a voice, what am I to do? I’ve been thinking about this since I returned from trip. I’ve been thinking about it a great deal. As we celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday, I reflected on Jesus’ response to the religious leaders as his disciples rightly worshiped Him during His triumphal entry to Jerusalem. His response helps to answer my question. Check it out:
Luke 19 37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[b] “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
The disciples were proclaiming Jesus was the King, giving Him the praise He was due, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (1 Tim. 6:15), the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), and the Messiah (John 4:25-26). Threatened, the religious leaders chastised Jesus, attempting to make Him silence the disciples. His reply is striking. If they were to keep quiet, the stones would cry out! It was right of them to proclaim Jesus as King, but even if they didn’t, creation would give voice to the truth. As the pinnacle of God’s creation, we have the opportunity, the privilege to give Him the praise He deserves, the praise that creation echoes day after day, and night after night. This is what I am to do.
Some may miss it as they contemplate the beauty of creation. The person of Christ – his life, death, and resurrection- brings the love and glory of God into focus for us. Consider the words of C.S. Lewis, “There is an activity of God displayed throughout creation, a wholesale activity, let us say, which men refuse to recognize. The miracles done by God incarnate, living as a man in Palestine, perform the very same things as this wholesale activity, but at a different speed and on a smaller scale… The miracles in fact are a re-telling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see“(‘Miracles’, God in the Dock). My response is to join with creation in proclaiming the beauty, goodness, and truth of God’s love for us by pointing people to Jesus the King, the RISEN savior of the world. I will not be silent, how about you?
An Alien Journey 