Thought for Today
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Psalm 8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
It is not a common Advent thought, but this morning, I am thinking about the complexity of Creation. Whether viewed from a subatomic perspective or a cosmic perspective, Creation is complex. Interestingly, that word does not appear in the Bible. Yet those verses above demonstrate the range of the topic and the recognition of God’s incredible scope of creation.
Our ancestors-in-the-faith who first set down the Creation story had a limited knowledge and understanding of astrophysics and the sun, moon and stars. Even their understanding of our planet was rudimentary at best. The earliest ‘scientific’ knowledge gained was related to planting and harvesting crops. It was very advantageous to know about seasons of the year, the most fortuitous times for planting and harvesting. One of the most famous ‘devices’ for keeping track of the sun and moon is probably Stone Henge in England. We now know of many variations on that theme, other henges and similar configurations even in the Western Hemisphere.
Our present understanding of astrophysics, geology, astronomy and all the other sciences is more sophisticated. We have even examined and explored subatomic particles. We have created structures like the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland which enable us to accelerate and collide particles, to study the basic elements of creation itself.
But, as a Christian, I understand all of our wonderful, sophisticated science and scientific theories as merely our human attempts to understand the mechanics, the ‘how’ of what our ancestors captured in those verses above from Genesis. Admittedly, as a trained engineer, I find the ‘how’ answers fascinating. When I worked as an engineer, all of those ‘how’ answers could be employed to help me put food on our table and pay registration fees for little league, etc.
Today, while I still find those ‘how’ answers and theories interesting, I am much more interested in the answers to ‘why.’ I know the answer to ‘who.’ Even our earliest ancestors-in-the-faith knew that answer. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” Do I claim to fully understand God? Of course not! Can I explain God? Silly question!! How can the creature explain the Creator? Do I ever wonder what God was doing before “In the beginning”? Actually, I do; and, when I do, I end up with a headache. How can anything be before the beginning? But, when Moses asked God whom Moses should say sent him, “Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God simply is the One Who Is, Was, and always Will Be.
Today, and often during Advent, I think about the psalmist’s question, “4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” The magnitude of the event to which we look forward during Advent is enormous. Second only to Genesis 1:1, John 3:16-17 is the most significant thing in creation.
God created all of Creation. In that story, we repeatedly read, “And God saw that it was good.” Yet all those thousands of years (billions?) later, when we get to Luke 1:5, “In the days of King Herod of Judea . . . “ not everything was still good. The solution employed by the Creator of all Creation was to send God’s Son to put things back in order, to ensure the salvation of Creation, including all of us. “4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.” That glory and honor was incarnate in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.
Creation is complex. More complex than any human hands could accomplish or any human mind even fully comprehend. But the answer to the psalmist question is simple. “For God so loved the world.”
Stay safe, thank God, trust God,
Pastor Ray