As the lyrics speak of the composer’s heart, as
the penned words reveal the author’s mind, as the painting points to the
artist’s soul, so creation communicates the Creator’s design. The Creator
speaks through what he creates.
Here’s how one poet puts it: “The heavens
proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day
they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak
without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone
throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4; all
Scriptures in this presentation are NLT unless otherwise noted)
There’s a continual communication going on from
God through his created life (day and night). And though you can’t hear an
audible voice, there is a revealed message from God that circles the globe.
Wherever there’s creation, there’s communication from God.
One mystic has admonished, “Contemplate what
lies before you. It is God’s way of making himself present.” (Huggett, p. 119)
What happens when you contemplate creation? What do you “hear” from God? What
does God “say” through his created works? The poet describes the heavens
proclaiming the “glory of God,” displaying God’s craftsmanship. The word for
“glory” literally means “character.” What about God’s character is revealed in
nature? What qualities of God are seen when we look around and pay attention
to, as the mystic said, what lies before us? Perhaps several things might come
to mind.
One, God is a creative being, a craftsman, as the poet put it. And what does that necessarily
imply? God thrives on the process of dreaming and putting into place what he
dreams. Watch the poet or artist or sculptor at work. They are passionate about
revealing their view of life through their works. The creative process involves
the use of the whole being: body, mind, heart, and soul. So all of God
(whatever God is, whatever God’s being is) is involved in providing a unique
window to the world through His art. It’s a way of expressing what’s in the
heart.
Artists value not only the end result but also
the process of producing it.
Two, God values diversity. You can’t help but see this side of God by looking even with a
cursory glance at nature. There’s such infinite variety in complexity, color,
essence, size, shape, ability, function. For example, some experts estimate
that among birds alone there are as many as 9,703 different species! (See
www.earthlife.net/birds/ intro.html.) Diversity!
Three, God values interdependence. Our ecosystem is comprised of biosystems where living organisms
interact with and influence each other in mutually beneficial ways. One of the
paradigms of physics is that forces (interactions between objects) always occur
in pairs – an action always involves a reaction. Single, isolated forces never
happen. The universe is composed of constant simultaneous interactions. And
since nothing happens in isolation, every action has an impact on the whole.
Nature definitely has a cooperative side. The
scientific terms “symbiosis” and “mutualism” both refer to numerous instances
in which organisms live together and help one another out. The organisms can be
of vastly differing species, such as an anemone and a hermit crab, or reef-building
corals and algae. Many of these arrangements are truly astonishing; like the
flashlight fish, which lures luminescent bacteria into chambers inside its body
and then uses the cultures to light its way through the dark ocean and signal
other fish about sex and danger. (Fausto-Sterling)
The poet John Donne, applying this to human life
with the famous phrase “no man is an island”, put it this way:
“All mankind is of one author, and is one
volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but
translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As
therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only,
but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more
me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. … No man is an island,
entire of itself... any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in
mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for
thee.” (Donne, Devotions)
God designed creation in such a way that
interdependence is an operative principle. But what about competition, the
often fierce struggle for dominance, the “survival of the fittest” concept?
What about those brutal examples of violence that occur in nature? If nature
speaks for God, how does that reflect on God’s glory? What does that say about
God?
It’s interesting that in the Jewish Scriptures
(for example, the prophet-poet Isaiah’s writings) the future world of God is
described as a place where the following will be commonplace:
“The wolf and the lamb will live together; the
leopard will lie down with the baby goat.
The calf and the yearling will be safe with the
lion, and a little child will lead them all.
The cow will graze near the bear.
The cub and the calf will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
The baby will play safely near the hole of a
cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without
harm.
Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy
mountain.” (Isaiah 11:6-9)
That’s quite a picture of peace and harmony!
Obviously not here yet. But perhaps it provides a glimpse into the way God
originally intended the world to be and what God wants for the ultimate future.
That is the view of some of the major world religions like Islam, Judaism, and
Christianity. God created the world as a place of natural beauty where all
created things live and exist together in peaceful harmony and unity –
interconnected, interdependent, cooperative, collaborative, and mutually
supportive – where cooperation rather than competition is the primary principle
of life existence and survival.
The context of the above poem describes how
instead of that natural harmony there exist aggressive human rivalry and
injustice and exploitation of people. The results are extreme poverty, slavery
and bondage, which creates a culture of the “haves” and the “have not’s,” the
rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved. That relational paradigm
certainly has impacted the natural world. Human greed and selfishness,
violence, power and control have too often created an environment of abuse and
fear and lack of freedom and waste.
Leonardo de Caprio’s documentary The 11th Hour, dealing with today’s
environmental crisis, suggests that human greed and selfishness are what
continue to perpetuate our exploitation of the planet. We are slaves to our own
needs and desires and lusts and so continue our thoughtless ravaging of the
world. Very profoundly and poignantly, the documentary brings home our reality:
if we are going to survive, we have to change our behavior from competition and
aggression to cooperation and admiration.
In other words, we in essence must return to
God’s original plan for global life, where all life lives in harmony from
mutual respect, value, support and interdependence. That would reflect
accurately on God and what God values and how God has created life. But given
these current conditions of creation, is it possible to use only nature as an
adequate revelation of God? Or has God chosen to use other means to communicate
Himself to His creation?
