Creation & faith | Clapping your hands with the trees

Albert Ein­stein is said to have once said: «The first sip from the cup of natu­ral sci­ence makes you athe­i­stic, but God is wai­ting at the bot­tom of the cup.» It’s like this: God reve­als Hims­elf in His crea­ti­on and the­r­e­fo­re a per­son can also encoun­ter Him the­re. This kind of encoun­ter has a heal­ing effect on our spi­ri­tu­al, phy­si­cal and men­tal health. And – we will join in the prai­se of crea­ti­on and sing prai­ses to God together.

Some­ti­mes the­re are art exhi­bi­ti­ons in which many works by one artist are shown. The cura­tors then draw con­clu­si­ons about the artist as a per­son on the basis of his or her man­ner of expres­si­on and a com­pre­hen­si­ve cha­rac­te­ri­sa­ti­on is crea­ted. C.H. Spur­ge­on: «Ever­y­thing that is crea­ted by the hand of such a mas­ter as God also har­bours parts of him. The­re are beau­tiful places on this mar­vell­ous pla­net that should make even tho­se who blas­phe­me God belie­ve. When I stand in the midst of moun­ta­ins, I can only say: anyo­ne who thinks that God does not exist here is cra­zy.»

God reveals himself in his creation

Paul is con­vin­ced: «Sin­ce the crea­ti­on of the world, peo­p­le have seen the earth and the hea­vens and ever­y­thing that God has crea­ted, and can cle­ar­ly reco­g­ni­se Him, the invi­si­ble God, in His eter­nal power and divi­ne essence. The­r­e­fo­re, they have no excu­se for not having known about God.» (Romans 1:20 NLB). Peo­p­le can infer the exis­tence and attri­bu­tes of God by obser­ving the world around them, the laws of natu­re and the beau­ty of crea­ti­on. Albert Ein­stein said: «The first sip from the cup of natu­ral sci­ence makes you athe­i­stic, but God is wai­ting at the bot­tom of the cup.» Through crea­ti­on we can beco­me more fami­li­ar with God’s heart. 

God reve­als hims­elf to us humans through various channels:

• Through His WordMar­tin Luther cal­led the Bible a man­ger in which the baby Jesus lies; in our ama­ze­ment at the man­ger, we should not for­get to wor­ship the child himself.
• Through per­so­nal impres­si­onsSome­ti­mes God reve­als hims­elf very direct­ly to a per­son, for exam­p­le through a dream, through an encoun­ter with ano­ther per­son or through divi­ne impressions.
• Through Jesus: God has shown hims­elf to us humans very cle­ar­ly in the per­son of Jesus. «Christ is the image of the invi­si­ble God. He was alre­a­dy the­re befo­re God crea­ted any­thing and is the first of all crea­ti­on» (Colos­si­ans 1:15 NLB).

But the source of reve­la­ti­on, which is acces­si­ble to all peo­p­le of all back­grounds at all times, is crea­ti­on. Astro­naut John Glenn, who flew into space in 1998, says: «To look at the earth from this van­ta­ge point, to see the mar­vell­ous crea­ti­on from here and not belie­ve in God – that is uni­ma­gi­nable for me.»

King David (ca. 1000 BC) agrees with him: «The hea­vens pro­cla­im the glo­ry of God and the fir­ma­ment bears wit­ness to his mar­vell­ous works. One day tells ano­ther, and one night tells ano­ther. Wit­hout speech and wit­hout words, their voice is silent, but their mes­sa­ge spreads over the who­le earth and their words over the who­le world […]» (Psalm 19:2–5 NLB).

In other words, open your eyes, look around, sit down and pay atten­ti­on. Crea­ti­on con­stant­ly speaks volu­mes about God’s super­na­tu­ral cha­rac­ter. The migh­ty moun­ta­ins and the vast­ness of the night sky speak of God’s great­ness. Maje­s­tic water­falls, tor­na­does, vio­lent hur­ri­ca­nes and explo­si­ve vol­ca­noes point to God’s migh­ty power. And the dai­ly dis­co­veries of micro­bio­lo­gists, mari­ne bio­lo­gists and phy­si­cists pro­vi­de a rich com­men­ta­ry on God’s wis­dom, com­ple­xi­ty and crea­ti­vi­ty. We see the same crea­ti­vi­ty and love in the ani­mal king­dom. The pro­tec­ti­ve care of a mother hen for her chicks gives us a glim­pse into the heart of our hea­ven­ly Father. The ten­der­ness of a lio­ness with her playful cubs is a reflec­tion of God’s grace and pati­ence. Abo­ve all, howe­ver, the ama­zing abili­ties and achie­ve­ments of humans point us to a desi­gner who must be remar­kab­le bey­ond mea­su­re. In the mir­ror (and in that of our neigh­bour) we see the signs of the one who crea­ted us: Crea­ti­vi­ty, a lon­ging for com­mu­ni­ty and a desi­re to make a difference.

Encountering God in his creation

If you feel that rea­ding books and lis­tening to ser­mons is no lon­ger get­ting you any­whe­re, then put on your jacket and trek­king shoes and go out to the school, which is always open. Just the other day, I was somehow blo­cked in the office while wri­ting a ser­mon. On a walk through the forest, I had the fee­ling that I was mee­ting God in the fle­sh. His crea­ti­vi­ty hel­ped me out of my block.

The atten­ti­ve stay in His crea­ti­on is inspi­ring and faith-pro­mo­ting and takes on a spe­cial mea­ning on dif­fi­cult paths. Job lost all his pos­ses­si­ons and – even worse – all ten of his child­ren. His suf­fe­ring and grief must have been imme­a­sura­ble. In order to sur­vi­ve, his atten­ti­on was con­stant­ly focus­sed on crea­ti­on. Chap­ter by chap­ter, events from natu­re are descri­bed. The aff­lic­ted Job hims­elf spo­ke the fol­lo­wing words when he com­mands his fate to God: «Ask the ani­mals, they will teach you. Ask the birds in the sky, they will tell you. Turn your thoughts to the earth, it will teach you. Even the fish in the sea will tell you. They all know that the Lord crea­ted them. For the life of every crea­tu­re and the breath of every human being is in his hand» (Job 12:7–10 NLB). Job, through such les­sons of natu­re, ended up at the point whe­re he could say, «Until now I only knew you from hear­say, but now I have seen you with my own eyes» (Job 42:5 NLB).

The dan­ger is that peo­p­le move their enti­re wor­ship ser­vice into natu­re. But that is not the mes­sa­ge of the Bible. Phy­si­cal fel­low­ship with other inha­bi­tants of God’s house is important, even if with­dra­wal some­ti­mes seems to be the easier opti­on. Spen­ding time in crea­ti­on is not a sub­sti­tu­te for church, but an important addi­ti­on. Adri­an Jag­gi, head of BESJ (Bund Evan­ge­li­scher Schwei­zer Jung­scha­ren), recent­ly said the fol­lo­wing in a maga­zi­ne: «Com­mu­ni­ty, a con­nec­tion to crea­ti­on and faith are powerful resour­ces for the men­tal health of child­ren and young peo­p­le.» This is in line with the mes­sa­ge of the Bible. It needs both: fel­low­ship with other fol­lo­wers as well as a con­nec­tion to creation.

Praising God with his creation

One of the grea­test songs of faith – «How gre­at you are» – cele­bra­tes the way God draws us to hims­elf through his crea­ti­on: When through the woods and the bright mea­dows – I hear the birds» bright song as I wan­der, – when I can look down into the val­ley from the airy heights, – a litt­le brook rus­hes, a wind blows by, – then my heart rejoices in you, gre­at ruler: – How gre­at you are! How gre­at you are!

The voca­ti­on of man is: Reflec­ting the glo­ry of God into the world and brin­ging the prai­se of all crea­ti­on to God. The who­le of crea­ti­on is alre­a­dy sin­ging prai­ses: «Let the sea and all that is in it prai­se him! Let the earth and ever­y­thing that lives on it cheer him. Let the rivers clap their hands for joy! Let the moun­ta­ins sing joyful songs befo­re the LORD» (Psalm 98:7–8 NLB). Not only the rivers, but also the trees clap their hands: «You will go forth in joy and be led in peace. The moun­ta­ins and hills will sing with joy befo­re you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands!» (Isai­ah 55:12 NLB).

When John, the wri­ter of the Book of Reve­la­ti­on, gets a glim­pse into the invi­si­ble rea­li­ty of God, he sees the fol­lo­wing: «And then I heard every crea­tu­re in hea­ven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea sin­ging, «Prai­se and honour and glo­ry and power be to him who sits on the thro­ne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever» » (Reve­la­ti­on 5:13 NLB).

Being atten­ti­ve to crea­ti­on acts as a powerful cata­lyst for prai­sing God in our lives. When we join in the prai­se of crea­ti­on, we live ful­ly in the heart of our cal­ling. It is of gre­at importance that we do not wor­ship crea­ti­on, but the Crea­tor. Crea­ti­on is not God, but mere­ly a place of reve­la­ti­on for God. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus are also not ani­mists. Ani­mism is a reli­gious and phi­lo­so­phi­cal world­view that sta­tes that not only humans, but also ani­mals, plants, natu­ral objects and even phe­no­me­na such as water, wind or moun­ta­ins have a soul or spi­rit. In ani­mist belief sys­tems, it is often assu­med that the­se spi­rits or souls have an influence on people’s lives and that it is important to live in harm­o­ny with them.

We humans are part of the enti­re com­mu­ni­ty of crea­ti­on with a cer­tain key posi­ti­on. As man and woman tog­e­ther, we are crea­ted in God’s image. In this world, we have a roy­al priestly func­tion. The roy­al part con­sists of reflec­ting God’s sove­reign rule and His wis­dom into crea­ti­on; as priests, we bring the prai­se of all crea­ti­on to God. God bestows this cal­ling, which ori­gi­nal­ly appli­ed to all peo­p­le, on His cho­sen peo­p­le (Exodus 19:6), the Israe­li­tes and the Church (1 Peter 2:9). Cho­sen – a per­son recei­ves this title when they per­so­nal­ly accept God’s offer of recon­ci­lia­ti­on, which bears the name Jesus Christ. When a per­son Jesus Christ as his Saviour, all the pre­re­qui­si­tes are in place to ful­fil the key func­tion in God’s creation.

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: Psalm 19:2–5; Job 12:7–10

A litt­le sug­ges­ti­on: You could hold today’s small group evening in God’s creation.

1. God reve­als Hims­elf in His crea­ti­on. Have you alre­a­dy met Him the­re? Do you con­scious­ly seek Him in nature?
2. Being mindful of crea­ti­on is good for our spi­ri­tu­al, men­tal and phy­si­cal health. What expe­ri­en­ces have you had with this?
3. What does it mean that the Bible says that the rivers and trees clap their hands in prai­se of God? How do you expe­ri­ence the song of prai­se of creation?
4. The cal­ling of man is to give the prai­se of all crea­ti­on to God. What could this look like in con­cre­te terms?
5. What distin­gu­is­hes humans from the rest of the com­mu­ni­ty of crea­ti­on? How would you descri­be his spe­cial position?