Seeing Creation

I came across a quote by Joan Chittister a few days ago that I really like and want to share with you: “To understand Christmas is to come face-to-face with the incarnation.  The very notion that God imbued creation with divinity makes everything we see sacred, every step we take a pilgrimage to the divine.”  I find these words to be quite profound and helpful. 

Chittister’s first sentence conveys a truth most Christians readily accept.  John 1:14 says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  The word “incarnation” means “in flesh” and points to the miracle of Christmas—that the Almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth, at one point in history took on human form (flesh) in Jesus and actually dwelt among us.  It is this event we celebrate every December 25.  And well we should!

It is the second sentence in Chittister’s quote that conveys a truth that many believers may not be so aware of and this is that by joining us here on earth God made “everything we see sacred.”  We now abide on holy ground.  The Bible makes clear from the very beginning that God created the world and declares its goodness.  The Bible also tells us that “the earth is the Lord’s” (Psalm 24:1); it belongs to God.  I suppose there is a sense in which these two truths also point to the earth’s sacredness but this is made most clear in the incarnation, the birth of Christ.  At Bethlehem “God imbued creation with divinity.”  I’m not sure many, if any, of us can fully comprehended the meaning of this but it should be enough for us to realize that the world we live in is holy and that all we see in God’s creation is sacred.  God’s holiness is literally all around us.  This should lead us to worship God every day and cause us to live in a perpetual state of wonder and awe.  I would also like to think that realizing the earth is sacred would cause us to do a better job of protecting and preserving it.

I like Chittister’s suggestion that every step we take here on earth is “a pilgrimage to the divine.”  This probably shouldn’t be taken literally but there is a sense in which what Chittister says is true.  We are not only created by God, we are made for God.  It is God’s intention that we draw nearer and nearer to Him.  God longs to envelope us in His love and to enjoy fellowship with us.  Hopefully every step we take will, in fact, draw us closer to the fullness of God’s love and His divine presence.  That is my goal for the days to come and throughout the New Year.  I hope it will be your goal too.

Merry Christmas and God bless!

–Chuck