Finding Resolve in God's Creation
Psalm 147 NIV
Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.
Sing to the Lord with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp.
He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Extol the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion.
He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you.
He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.
He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast?
He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel.
He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the Lord.
I had the opportunity this month to spend time with my family in North Dakota and Minnesota to celebrate the marriage of my sister and enjoy a much-needed quarantine getaway. I spent so much of this time admiring nature - both at my parent’s lake cabin and on our mini-road trip to visit family (I guess being quarantined in a suburban house for 4 months makes you appreciate different landscapes more). I found myself frequently gazing - even in the monstrous storm that passed through - at God’s awesome creation.
Through my recent Psalm challenge (which you can still watch on YouTube), I gained a greater appreciation of nature - both as an object of provision and as a testament of God’s omnipotence and sovereignty. And so, during this trip, I was able to look at the landscapes through a more personal and spiritual lens. I want to share some of my revelations with you today and through the next few weeks.
God’s Perfection
“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
We see these verses confirmed in Isaiah 40:26; 28 - “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”
When God created the universe, He made it - and everything within it - perfect. He makes no mistakes. He created man out of dust and breathed life into it; he took from the body one rib to create woman. And they were perfect. So perfect that nakedness - the faultless form and design of the human body - caused no shame. Most of us know the rest of the story...the serpent...the apple...the fall of mankind and the world.
The fall of mankind didn’t negate God’s perfection, though. Even today, His flawless creation can be seen everywhere. Intricate cell structures of plants still turn light into energy. Ecosystems are still so interconnected that the imbalance of one living thing creates a domino effect. The Earth still remains at a perfect distance from the sun which allows for precise and adequate living conditions. The tide still ebbs and flows in accordance with the moon’s force. Seasons still change, and life continues to exist.
We too are a part of God’s immaculate creation. He knitted us together in our mothers’ wombs, saw our unformed bodies and molded them into His beloved children. Likewise, we, and our bodies, are also subject to this fallen world. Admittedly, it’s hard to see His perfection when illness or tragedy or even death strikes. When it appears that He has allowed something evil to rip apart His creation, doubt and fear can arise.
In this discussion about creation, I think we can liken our experiences with illnesses to diseased trees. The tree, designed to take in carbon monoxide and release oxygen, grows leaves with intricate veins, trunks with perfect rings, a complex root system, and sometimes fruit. Even if pests or mildew attack the tree, it still bears witness to its original form and function, and thus God’s perfect creation. Similarly, despite the areas in which our bodies malfunction, all of our systems still tell of divine design.
The Bible tells us that our bodies are merely vessels for our spirits, and death is at work within us. (2 Corinthians 4) But even in that, we can see God’s excellent composition and arrangement of our whole selves - body and spirit. So, when our eyes fail to see His hand over our flawed bodies, surely we can see how His perfect grace has sustained us through illness. When it seems as though God has abandoned us in our afflictions, perhaps we can strain ourselves to understand that we can never be separated from His perfect love. And when all else fails, we can, at the very least, cling to the fact that God’s perfect creation, although it endures a very imperfect fallen world, will not only get to experience His perfect glory, but will also see His perfect plan come to completion.