This past Sunday we sang “This Is My Father’s World” at church. For some reason the words to the second verse really caught my attention. Here the writer says: “This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise; the morning light, the lily white declare their Maker’s praise. This is my Father’s world, He shines in all that’s fair; in the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me ev’ry-where.” I needed the reminder that God speaks to us everywhere and quite often through things we might not be aware of or things we take for granted. The birds I hear singing when I take my daily walks may very well be calling me to lift my own voice in praise to the Creator. The light that the sun casts upon the earth reminds me of the One who said in the beginning “Let there be light.” Even the flowers I see in my yard and the “rustling grass” point me to the God who made the heavens and the earth.
Maltbie Babcock, the writer of “This Is My Father’s World,” points out that everything God has made “declares their Maker’s praise.” I happen to believe that this is true. All of Creation, including us, is placed here to honor and adore God. Each aspect of Creation certainly has other roles to play but first and foremost they, and we, exist for the glory of God. In Romans 11:36 the apostle Paul says “For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever!”
If the birds, the sun, the flowers and grass all declare God’s praise, how much more should you and I do the same! Those of us created in the image of God should strive to offer our Maker praise and to bear witness to God’s amazing love and grace. We, too, are part of God’s Creation and as such have a job to fulfill.
Maltbie Babcock spoke of hearing God speak everywhere. If Babcock were still alive today and knew you, could he say that God spoke to him through you? If not, how come? That, after all, is our very purpose in life. I hope when you hear the birds in your neighborhood, notice the light of the sun shining around you, see the flowers and even the grass in your yards, that you will remember to join in with the rest of Creation in offering God praise and strive to point others to the One to whom this world belongs.
John Muir once wrote, “We live in ‘creation’s dawn.’ The morning stars still sing together, and the world, though made, is still being made and becomes more beautiful every day.” I have long loved this quote. Recently I ran across a hymn that echoes Muir’s thoughts. It’s called “The First Day of Creation” and was written by Thomas H. Troeger. Here are the words: “The first day of creation is dawning in the soul, upon the deep God hovers where fear and chaos roll. The inward dark is parting. The seas make room for land. Great shorelines are emerging a new world is at hand! Yet God is recreating more than our inner world: look up beyond the planets where galaxies are swirled. Look out and see how often surprising love is shown. Christ is at work reshaping both stars and hearts of stone. All life in Christ is compassed by that transforming grace which spins new worlds and wonders in every time and place. O Twirler of the stardust, O Light no darkness rims, your new creation pulses with worship, praise and hymns.”
I find comfort in the thought that each new day the Creator is at work both in the world and in our hearts. Every sunrise is a reminder that God remains active in our lives. Every day the Maker of heaven and earth is creating, preserving and sustaining the world and all who dwell therein. God did not create the world and then back away. No, God continues the work of creation to this very day.
I suspect this is a message many need to hear today. 2020 has been a wild and rocky ride for most of us. So much in our lives has been turned upside down. The deadly pandemic caused by Covid-19 has resulted in a great deal of fear, anxiety, and stress. Some may wonder if God has forsaken us. The good news is that our Maker is still very much with us and makes this known with the gift of each new day. Lamentations 3:22-23 says “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
This Thanksgiving I will give thanks for God’s faithfulness—a faithfulness revealed each day in God’s ongoing work of Creation and in God’s work in the lives of people like you and me. I will likewise give thanks that “God hovers where fear and chaos roll” and that “Christ is at work reshaping both stars and hearts of stone.” Even in 2020 we still have so very much to be thankful for.
Recently the choir at my church sang an anthem called “Thank You, God.” I’m sure the author of the piece, J. Paul Williams, could have gone in a number of different directions giving thanks to God but he chose to focus on God’s gift of Creation. Here are the lyrics: “God created everything we see, He made the misty night. He spoke and there was light. He is the giver, our praise to Him we sing. God is the giver of every good thing. He gave us seed to sow. He gave us minds to know; He is the giver, our praise to Him we sing. Forest and mountain, swift running river, love overflowing, God is the giver. Thank you, God, thank you, for every good and perfect gift. God is the one who makes the crops to grow. He makes each bud to flower with sunshine and with shower. He is the giver, our praise to Him we sing.”
Another hymn writer, Henry van Dyke, also included Creation in his popular hymn “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” Dyke, however, took a slightly different approach and spoke of Creation’s call for us to offer God praise. He wrote: “All thy works with joy surround thee, earth and heaven reflect thy rays, stars and angels sing around thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, chanting bird and flowing fountain, call us to rejoice in thee.”
These two writers remind us that God’s gift of Creation calls us to give thanks and to offer praise to the Maker of heaven and earth. This call, of course, is nothing new. You will find numerous similar calls throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Book of Psalms. There you will even find Creation itself being called upon to offer God praise. In Psalm 98 we read “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music… Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy.” (vs. 4, 7-8)
All of Creation is called upon to offer thanksgiving and praise to God. So are we. With this in mind, let me urge you this Thanksgiving to give thanks for God’s gift of Creation. The truth be known, just about everything we normally give thanks for on Thanksgiving Day would have been impossible were it not for the provisions God gives us through Creation. And may I suggest that you continue to give thanks for this good earth on a regular basis. Our life would not be possible apart from God’s gifts through Creation. So take time each day to offer your thanks for God’s provision and your praise to the Giver of all good gifts. It truly is the right thing to do.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14
Today is the twelfth and final day of the Christmas season. When you add the four weeks of Advent to the twelve days of Christmas, and then tack on all the pre-Advent weeks of Christmas decorations, music and commercials, Christmas seems to last forever these days. I hope it has been a joyful and blessed season for you and before we officially leave it I’d like to pause one more time to consider the significance of the Incarnation.
In today’s “Daily Meditation” by Richard Rohr he makes the claim that Christmas for many is an even bigger celebration than Easter. It would be hard to deny that claim. In fact, I’ve often wondered why we go all out in our celebration of Christmas but seem rather subdued when it comes to Easter. Rohr offers one reason. He says “because for God to be born as one of us in this world among the animals and in a poor family shows that humanity is good, flesh is good, and this world is good!” I’m not sure Rohr’s reason fully justifies the disproportionate celebration Christmas receives over Easter but he does point to an often forgotten truth that was made manifest when God took on human flesh that first Christmas. By entering this world and actually becoming a part of this world God revealed the goodness of Creation and humanity itself. This goodness was already affirmed in the Genesis 1 account of Creation but by taking on human flesh and living in the midst of this Creation God affirmed their goodness on a whole new level.
Contrary to various philosophies that have dominated human thinking at times, this world is good and life in this world is as well. The birth of Jesus Christ offers proof of this. If the world and life were not sacred prior to Jesus’ birth—and I believe that they were—they certainly were afterwards. In a definitive way God added God’s stamp of approval on both when Jesus was born.
At the end of today’s “daily meditation” Rohr says “Christ is both the Alpha and the Omega of history (Revelation 1:8), naming it correctly at the very start and forever alluring it forward. Love is both the cause and the goal of all creation. This is a meaningful universe, and meaning is what the soul needs to thrive.” God’s love revealed at Christmas, and certainly Easter too, does in fact give meaning to the universe and life itself. It also serves as a useful reminder that God is as much a part of this earth and this life as God is of heaven and the life to come. I’m afraid far too many of us fail to recognize this. If we fully understood this truth we’d be singing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” not just at Christmas but year round.
–Chuck
(I took the first and third image in Henderson County, KY., and the middle image at Yellowstone National Park.)
Currently I’m teaching a study on the Book of Revelation at the church I serve. This week the focus is on chapter four where John is given a glimpse of the worship going on in heaven. John records what he saw and among the things he glimpsed were “four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes.” (v. 6) He goes on to say “The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.” (v. 7) These four creatures, we are told, offered God worship day and night, continually saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” (v. 8)
Several scholars believe the four creatures John saw stand for the four parts of the animal kingdom. The lion represented wild beasts, the ox represented domesticated animals, the human face represented humans and the eagle represented birds. The lion’s nobility, the ox’s strength, the human’s wisdom and the eagle’s swiftness likely played a role in their selection. Each creature has preeminence in its own particular sphere and yet each give preeminence and worship to God, their Maker. Here we find a reminder that all of Creation was made to worship God. It is not humans alone that worship God; all that God has made joins together in offering the Creator praise.
In the verses that follow we learn that when the four creatures give glory, honor and thanks to God that others gathered around God’s throne fall down before God and join them in offering their own worship. Specifically, twenty-four elders are mentioned and they too sing a hymn of praise to God: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (v. 11)
I would not be so bold as to say I understand all the particulars of worship in heaven but I do find a parallel here with my own experience. It is noteworthy that the twenty-four elders offer their praise after watching the four living creatures offer theirs. The actions of the creatures somehow move the elders to join in the worship. I have experienced that pattern myself. As I have watched various creatures do what God created them to do, and thus offer God praise, I have found myself moved to offer praise to the Creator as well. It was as though the creatures I was observing led or called me into worship. Watching an eagle soar has done this for me. So has observing a grizzly bear forage and a mountain goat climb rocks. Hearing a bull elk bugle in the fall has served as a call to worship for me on more than one occasion. Even spending time with comical prairie dogs has lifted my spirits and moved me to offer God worship. So maybe all of Creation was not just made to worship God but also to lead the rest of us to do the same. The question is, are we following in their steps as the twenty-four elders do in heaven. I hope the answer is Yes.
–Chuck
(I took the elk and mountain goat pictures on my recent trip to South Dakota. I took the grizzly image several years ago in Alaska.)
In recent days I’ve been reading Joan Chittister’s book, In Search of Belief. The book is a careful and thoughtful look at the Apostles’ Creed. When it comes time for Chittister to discuss God as “Father” it is apparent she has a problem with this appellation. It’s not that she is opposed to referring to God as Father; instead, she finds it too limiting. She feels the Church has made a mistake in focusing on just one of the Bible’s many images of God. She notes that a number of the biblical images come from Creation and feels that these, as well as others, should also be used to give us a fuller and more complete understanding of God.
Chittister argues for expanding our metaphors and images of God. She says, “By naming God everything that makes God God, we come daily to see God differently, to see God wholly. More than that, by naming God the sum total of created goodness, we come to see the rest of life differently as well. In the first place, we see God present to every distinct moment, every separate segment of life. In the second place, we come to see every distinct moment of life, every gracious mortal being around us charged with that presence. We come to see every facet of life—all of them, each of them—as glints of the Divine. We get a fuller picture of God. At the same time, we get a deeper understanding of the sacredness of a creation that shares in this diversity.”
Joan goes on to say, “When we name God fully, all of life becomes an exercise in contemplation. We touch the divine dimensions of ourselves. We see God everywhere. We feel divinity everywhere. We recognize God everywhere. And, eventually, we become what we think about. We become what we see, make holy what we touch, make sacred what we are.”
I appreciate what Chittister says here. Perhaps we have focused too much on just a few images of God when including several more would broaden both our understanding and experience of God and Jesus. I am especially drawn to the biblical images found in Creation. Jesus referred to himself as “the light of the world” and spoke of the “living waters” that came from him. I remember other nature images appearing in a hymn I sang often as a child: “He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star…” Another song referred to God as “the sweetest rose of Sharon.” The Psalmist used nature images to refer to God. He spoke of God as “a sun and shield” (84:11) and “the Rock of our salvation.” (95:1)
There are lots of images of God related to nature and if we will regularly reflect on these, especially as we view them in nature itself, we should be able to connect with God in a fuller and richer way. There truly are “glints of the Divine” all around us! I encourage you to take Chittister’s lead and begin looking for other metaphors and images that will augment the few the Church has historically chosen to highlight so that you might come to know God in fresh and new ways. As Joan reminds us, “Clearly, if God is really God, no one name can possibly hold all the allusions, say all the concepts, breathe in one breath all the qualities that are God.”
–Chuck
(I took the top image at Antelope Canyon near Page, Az.; the middle image in Missouri’s Ozark mountains; and the bottom image at Monument Valley in Az.)
