God made himself known to us. The splintering sunbeams, the majestic sky, the sea that rolls just to the edge and stops, the breeze in the trees. These all shout there is a divine creator who is so into our lives’ details, science, and creativity.
God quizzes Job
I read the book of Job this week. Much of the book is difficult, but I am captivated when I get to those last chapters, the ones where God challenges Job in conversation. Imagine God speaking these words to you, “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” God asks too many questions to capture here. If you haven’t read Job 38 – 42 lately, read God’s quiz for Job. Here is how God begins …
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?“Who shut up the sea behind doors
Job 38:4-11 NIV
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
Our God is incomprehensible, but He is not unknowable!
All nature shouts
All of nature shouts His majesty, His greatness, His power. Since the world’s creation, God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that all people might know Him!!
I praise you because
R. S. Thomas
you are artist and scientist
in one. When I am somewhat
fearful of your power,
your ability to work miracles
with a set—square, I hear
you murmuring to yourself
in a notation Beethoven
dreamed of but never achieved.
You run off your scales of
rain water and sea water, play
the chords of the morning
and evening light, sculpture
with shadow, join together leaf
by leaf, when spring
comes, the stanzas of
an immense poem. You speak
all languages and none,
answering our most complex
prayers with the simplicity
of a flower, confronting
us, when we would domesticate you
to our uses, with the rioting
viruses under our lens.
Christopher Wright says in his book, Knowing the Holy Spirit Through the Old Testament, “the same Spirit of God who was at work in creation is also at work in that same wider sense, in all those who, as human beings made in God’s image, enrich our world with all kinds of creativity in art, music, colorful design, beautiful craftsmanship.”
God desires us to know the gospel intellectually and intimately experience its beauty. Just as nature reveals who God is, so art can draw us into this intimate experience beyond mere words. Songs, music, paintings, books, sculptures, movies, and photography can make this experience a reality. Good art ensures that we experience the gospel without sacrificing our understanding.
God proclaims His wisdom and greatness through nature.
God gives both goodness and grace as gifts in Christ Jesus
God makes himself known to us! It is the very story we just celebrated for weeks, the coming of the babe. He doesn’t just reveal Himself to us; He becomes one of us, pitching His tent in the midst of us.
Be at rest once more, O my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.
Consider his goodness to you today.
