149 Sermon Illustrations on Creation

When we talk about a lady kissing a frog and turning him into a price, we shrug and say, "Oh, that's just a fairy tale." But then, they tell us that there once was a frog and some 400 million years later it evolved into a man, and that's supposed to be science.

The body is a masterpiece of exquisite design. Beautifully "engineered," it is governed by several hundred systems of control - each interacting with and affecting the other. His brain has 10 billion nerve cells to record what he sees and hears. His skin has more than 2 million tiny sweat glands - about 3000 per square inch - all part of the intricate system which keeps his body at an even temperature. A "pump" in his chest makes his blood travel 168 million miles a day - equivalent of 6720 times around the world! The lining of his stomach contains 35 million glands secreting juices which aid the process of digestion. And these are but a few of the involved processes and chemical wonders which operate to sustain his life.

A young student had been impressed with the fact that most new products have some "bugs" that must be ironed out before they can operate efficiently. As he stood gazing at a chart showing the organs, nerves, arteries, and glands in the human body, he suddenly exclaimed, "Just think, the first time God put it together, it worked!"

One day a 6 year old girl was sitting in the classroom.

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The teacher was going to explain evolution to the children.

The teacher asked a little boy:

Tommy, do you see the tree outside?

Tommy: Yes.

Teacher: Tommy, do you see the grass outside?

Tommy: Yes.

Teacher: Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky.

Tommy: OK. (He returned a few minutes later) Yes,I saw the sky.

Teacher: Did you see God?

Tommy: No.

Teacher: That's my point. We can't see God because he isn't there.

A little girl spoke up and wanted to ask the boy some questions.

Teacher agreed and she asked the boy:

Little Girl: Tommy, do you see the tree outside?

Tommy: Yes.

Little girl: Tommy do you see the grass outside?

Tommy Yessssss (getting tired of the questions by this time)

Little girl: Did you see the sky?

Tommy: Yessssss

Little Girl: Tommy, do you see the teacher?

Tommy: Yes

Little Girl: Do you see her brain?

Tommy: No

Little Girl: Does that mean she doesn't have one?

TRIVIA: What's the most nimble-footed animal?

If you have ever tried to catch a cockroach, you know the little

devils are fast and sure-footed. A team of biologists recently

discovered that cockroaches can change course as many as 25 times in

one second, making them the most nimble animals known.

Cockroaches can run as fast as one meter (over three feet) per second.

The researchers were curious how these darkness-loving insects managed

to avoid running into obstacles, so they built a special enclosure and

filmed them at 250 frames per second.

They discovered that the roaches kept the tips of their antennae in

contact with barriers, and were able to twist and turn very rapidly to

follow the walls. Even when the insects were blindfolded with dabs of

wax, they still kept a sure course around obstacles.

FLY AWAY HOME

Royce Frederick

A scientist reported that a manx shearwater, a sea bird, was taken by airplane from its home on the west coast of England to Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. In less than 12 days the bird was in its nest in England! It had flown 3,067 miles, across the Atlantic Ocean, and averaged 255 miles per day!

E.F.G. Sauer experimented with a variety of warblers which migrate individually, not in flocks. The young warblers hatch in Europe, and-- without any birds to lead them-- they migrate to their destination in Africa to which they had never travelled! Sauer proved that these warblers navigate by the stars.

Evolutionists claim that all forms of life evolved by chance during millions of years. But chance cannot explain: (1) the marvelous design of birds, and (2) how birds are able to migrate. How could birds, by chance, learn to use the stars to calculate their position on earth and the exact direction of a destination to which they had never travelled? Men who navigate must first study mathematics, geometry, astronomy, and navigation-- then use tools such as a chart, map, compass, sextant, or electronic instruments. Even if a bird learned to navigate, how could that bird pass such knowledge to the next generation?

Birds and their abilities are convincing evidence of a wise and powerful Creator (Romans 1:20). "God created... every winged bird according to its kind..." (Gen. 1:21).

Mere chance cannot take migratory birds to their desired destination. Likewise, mere chance cannot take you or me to heaven. Our Creator gave us the Bible to guide us to heaven through Jesus (Jn. 14:6; 8:31,32; Ac. 20:32; 2 Tim. 1:10; 2 Pet. 1:3). A sinner who is baptized in water for the forgiveness of sins, and remains faithful to Christ, will reach the greatest destination of all-- our eternal home with God (see Jn. 14:1-3; Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12; Gal. 3:26-27; Rev. 2:10; 1 Th. 4:13-17).

--West Columbia, SC

A little girl crawled up into her great grandmother's lap one day.

And looking up into her great grandmother's face she saw all those

crevices, lines, and wrinkles. Then she felt her own smooth baby-like

skin. She said to her great grandmother, "Did God make you?" Her

great grandmother said, "Yes honey, God made me." Then the little

girl said, "Well great grandmother, did God make me?" Her great

grandmother said, "Oh yes, God made you too." And then the little

girl said, "Well great grandmother, don't you think God's doing a lot

better job these days?"

- Mike Minix

BETTER WORK LATELY

A little boy asked his Dad: "Dad, did God make you?"

"Yes, of course," said his Dad.

"And did He make me?" asked the little boy.

"Yes, He did," said his Dad.

"Well," said the boy, "He's being doing better work lately, eh?"

Eugene Cernan, one of the astronauts who enjoyed the exciting adventure of walking on the moon, said with wonder, "Our world appears big and beautiful, all blue and white! You can see from the Antarctic to the North Pole. The earth looks so perfect. There are no strings to hold it up; there is no fulcrum upon which it rests." Contemplating the infinity of space and time, he said he felt as if he were seeing earth from God's perspective when it was created.

My Source:

THE MESSENGER

Karns church of Christ

Volume 26, #52, July 25, 1999

Author: Not listed; Submitted by Hannah Cox

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WHERE GOD AIN'T!

He was just a little lad,

And on the week's first day

He was wandering home from Sunday school,

And dawdling on the way.

He scuffed his shoes into the grass;

He found a caterpillar;

He found a fluffy milkweed pod,

And blew out all the "filler."

A bird's nest in a tree o'er head

So wisely placed on high,

Was just another wonder

That caught his eager eye.

A neighbor watched his zigzag course, and

Hailed him from the lawn;

Asked him where he'd been that day,

And what was going on.

"I've been to Bible school," he said, and

Turned a piece of sod.

He picked up a wiggly worm and said,

"I've learned a lot about God."

"M'm a very fine way," the neighbor said,

"For a boy to spend his time,

If you'll tell me where God is,

I'll give you a brand new dime."

Quick as a flash his answer came!

Nor were his accents faint.

"I'll give you a dollar, Mister,

If you'll tell me where God ain't!"

THE MOON (EP) — On Christmas Eve 1968, somewhere above the forbidding landscape of the moon, the voices of Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders carried to earth dwellers the story of creation as found in Genesis 1:1-10.

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,” intoned Anders in Apollo 8’s unannounced litany broadcast as the astronauts’ TV camera flashed back a remarkable picture of the deeply-shadowed lunar landscape.

Borman closed the lunar telecast with these words: “Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you upon the good earth.”

The trio then closed the moonship’s fourth telecast and began preparations for the successful blast out of lunar orbit to return to the “grand oasis in the vastness of space, earth.”

=======================

The complete broadcast:

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts: Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and Moon as seen from Apollo 8. Lovell said, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.” They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

William Anders:

“For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you”.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Jim Lovell:

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

Frank Borman:

“And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Borman then added, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth.”

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The militant atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair later caused controversy by bringing a lawsuit against NASA over the reading from Genesis; she wished the courts to ban US astronauts — who were all Government employees — from public prayer in space. This was eventually rejected by the courts, but it caused NASA to be skittish about the issue of religion throughout the rest of the Apollo program. Buzz Aldrin, on Apollo 11, took communion on the surface of the moon after landing; he refrained from mentioning this publicly for several years, and only obliquely referred to it at the time.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/a/ap/apollo_8.htm

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1. For the beauty of the earth,

For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth,

Over and around us lies:

Chorus:

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

2. For the wonder of each hour

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale and tree and flow’r,

Sun and moon and stars of light:

3. For the joy of ear and eye,

For the heart and mind’s delight,

For the mystic harmony

Linking sense to sound and sight:

4. For the warmth of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on earth and friends above,

For all gentle thoughts and mild:

5. For Thy Church that evermore

Lifts here holy hands above,

Off’ring up on ev’ry shore

Her pure sacrifice of love:

[Tune: “Dix”]

*

1. O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the works Thy hands have made,

I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,

Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed!

Chorus

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;

How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;

How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

2. When through the woods and forest glades I wander

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,

3. And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,

Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in –

That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,

He bled and died to take away my sin!

4. When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation

And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow in humble adoration

And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!

*

1. Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,

God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flow'rs before Thee,

Hail Thee as the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,

Drive the dark of doubt away;

Giver of immortal gladness,

Fill us with the light of day!

2. All Thy works with joy surround Thee,

Earth and heav'n reflect Thy rays,

Stars and angels sing around Thee,

Centre of unbroken praise.

Field and forest, vale and mountain,

Flow'ry meadow, flashing sea,

Chanting bird and flowing fountain

Call us to rejoice in Thee.

3. Thou are giving and forgiving,

Ever blessing, ever blest,

Wellspring of the joy of living,

Ocean depth of happy rest!

Thou the Father, Christ our Brother–

All who live in love are Thine;

Teach us how to love each other,

Lift us to the joy divine.

4. Mortals, join the mighty chorus

Which the morning stars began;

Father-love is reigning o'er us,

Brother-love binds man to man.

Ever singing, march we onward,

Victors in the midst of strife;

Joyful music lifts us sun-ward

In the triumph song of life.

[Tune “Hymn to Joy”]

*

The following is an excerpt from a book review appearing in the New York Times. The writer says the "intelligent design" school of "Neo-creationists" (people who argue for a form of creation that allows for some evolution and an old earth) fail to prove their case. One key reason for this is discussed in this quote. The error of the quote is the age old problem of denying sin and its effects, for one, and the arrogance of assuming man knows that "junk DNA" exists.

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If nature were fashioned by a hands-on Divine Artificer, it ought to exhibit a certain elegance and efficiency. Then what of all the imperfections we see in the biological world? Why are organisms burdened with maladaptive features like the webbed feet of the frigate bird, which does not need them for paddling? Why is our genome littered with nonfunctional junk DNA? Why have 99.99 percent of the species that have ever existed gone extinct -- including the poor dinosaurs, created only to be wiped out by an errant asteroid? As Gould remarks, "Odd arrangements and funny solutions are the proof of evolution -- paths that a sensible God would never tread but that a natural process, constrained by history, follows perforce."

'Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics': Supernatural Selection

By JIM HOLT

April 14, 2002

New York Times Book Review

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Devilution: Evolution's Erosion of Human Society

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Dates, Deluge and Dinosaurs

Genesis 1:1-2:2

This message will attempt to answer the three questions most often asked by evolutionists to creations:

1. The Age of the Earth.

2. A Global Flood.

3. The Existence of Dinosaurs.

I. Dates. (The Age Of The Earth)

Note: Evolutionists believe in a very old earth. (3-4 billion years).

Creationists believe in a very young earth. (6-10 thousand years).

Two Theories Attempting to Reconcile Creation-Evolution Dates

1. The day-age theory. (Gen. 1; days represent long ages.)

2. The gap theory. (An age gap exists between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2)

Two Primary Witnesses to a Young Earth

1. The witness of scripture.

2. The witness of the physical universe.

1. Human population.

2. The loss of mass of our sun.

3. The spinning of the expanding galaxies.

4. The cooling of the planets.

5. The expanding rings around Saturn.

6. The expanding distance of the moon from the earth.

7. The depth of cosmic dust on the surface of the moon.

8. The weakening magnetic field of the earth.

9. The slowing rotation of the earth.

10. The expansion of the Sahara desert.

11. The extreme pressure of underground oil reserves.

12. The sediment deposits of the Mississippi River.

13. The oldest living tree in the world is 4,000 years old.

14. The Great Barrier Reef is 4,300 years old.

15. The movement of Niagara Falls from erosion.

16. The increase in ocean salts.

17. The growth of stalactites.

18. The erosion rate of the continents.

19. The gravitational field of the sun and stars.

20. The presence of short-term comets.

21. Radiation halos in Colorado coal.

I. Dates

1. Evolutionists believe in a very old earth. (3-4 billion years old)

2. Most creationists believe in a very young earth. (6,000-10,000 years)

II. Deluge (Gen. 7:11-24)

1. The Bible clearly describes a global flood, not merely a local flood.

2. There is strong historical evidence supporting the flood.

___________________

Evidence from 33 Ancient Cultures:

• 33 of 33 have a flood tradition.

• 31 of 33 have a common tradition that the flood was globally destructive.

• 32 of 33 say man was somehow divinely saved in the flood.

• 30 of 33 say there was some kind of special provision for the animals.

• 25 of 33 describe an ark or boat landing on top of a mountain.

• 29 of 33 describe a bird being sent from the boat to find land.

• 30 of 33 describe a colored arch as a symbol of divine favor.

• 31 of 33 say the first thing the people did when they landed on dry

ground was to worship God.

_______________

3. There is strong geological evidence supporting the flood.

4. There is much fossil evidence supporting the flood.

5. Prior to the flood, many believe the world was surrounded with a

vapor canopy.

III. Dinosaurs

1. Dinosaurs lived along with man.

2. The Bible describes dinosaur-like creatures. (Job 40:15-41:34)

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Not long ago, a friend of mine picked up a picture book for her young son about the well-known Berenstain Bears. In this book, the Bear family invites young readers on a nature walk. After a few pages, they are struck by a startling slogan, sprawled across the page: Nature is “all that IS, or WAS, or EVER WILL BE.”

Where did this strange credo come from?

The words are borrowed from the late science popularizer Carl Sagan, host of the famous PBS show “Cosmos.” Sagan’s trademark phrase was: “The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” Sagan was echoing the classic Christian liturgy- “Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.” Sagan was offering nothing less than a religion of naturalism-where nature takes the place of God as the ultimate and eternal reality.

What Sagan did for adults, the Berenstain Bears are doing for youngsters-introducing them to the religion of naturalism. Yet, ironically, the most recent scientific discoveries actually contradict naturalism.

Take the big bang theory. For centuries, the scientific evidence seemed to suggest that matter was eternal-without beginning or end. Then, just thirty years ago, several lines of evidence came together indicating that matter is not eternal after all–that the physical universe exploded into existence at a definite point in time. And if the universe popped into existence, then something-or Someone–outside the universe must have brought it into existence. Science itself points to a transcendent Creator.

Even more striking, science is turning up evidence that the universe was designed for a purpose. Take the position of Earth: If it were even slightly closer to the sun, all water would be scorched away and life would be impossible. On the other hand, if the Earth were only slightly farther away from the sun, all water would freeze and there would be nothing but barren deserts.

Or consider the force of gravity. If it were only slightly stronger, the universe would have collapsed back in on itself shortly after the big bang. If gravity were only slightly weaker, the universe would have expanded far too quickly for stars and galaxies to form.

Why is the force of gravity just right for our universe to form? No one knows. There’s no physical cause to explain it. Is it just coincidence? Or was the universe designed this way for a purpose?

Cosmologists are discovering that the slightest tinkering with the values of the fundamental forces of physics would have resulted in a universe where life was impossible. It looks more and more like the best explanation for the exquisitely balanced structure of the universe is that someone intended it to be that way.

If you’re a parent or teacher, make sure you read your children’s books-and that you can help them answer the challenge of naturalism. Nature is NOT all there is or was or ever will be. Science itself is turning up evidence that the universe had a beginning, and that came from the hand of God for a purpose.

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected [it] in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20-21 NKJV)

The Deliverance Of The Creature

• made — in consequence of sin

• vanity [futility] — decay, misery, death

• not willingly — not of its own will, but by Divine sentence — Gen 3:17-18, Isa 24:5-6, 2 Pet 3:7

• hope — the ruin not final. This flower survived the withering of Eden’s blossoms.

• delivered — Rev 21:4, Heb 2:13-15 — emancipated

• glorious liberty — Gk., the liberty of the glory, i.e., the liberty pertaining to the manifested perfection of the sons of God

Divine sonship — Dr Thomas

From these words infer:

I. That there are I some men who are actually affiliated to God — “children of God.” What does this mean? Not mere –

1. Creatureship;

2. Resemblance.

II. This affiliation to God is connected with glorious liberty:

1. It is purchased at immense cost;

2. It involves man’s entire freedom;

3. It is a liberty in harmony with the rights of the universe and God’s glory;

4. It will never find a termination.

Waiting for Christ’s coming — One windy afternoon, I went with a friend into a country almshouse. There was sitting before a feeble fire a very aged man; and the better to keep from his bald head the cold gusts, he wore his bat; he was never likely to need it out of doors. He was very deaf, and so shaken with the palsy that one wooden shoe constantly pattered on the brick floor. But, deaf, and sick, and helpless, it turned out that he was happy. ‘What are you doing, Wisby?’ said my friend. ‘Waiting, sir.’ ‘And for what?’ ‘For the appearing of my Lord.’ And what makes you wish for His appearing?’ ‘Because, sir, I expect great things then. He has promised a crown of righteousness to all that love His appearing.’ And, to see whether it was a right foundation on which he rested that glorious hope, we asked old Wisby what it was. By degrees he got on his spectacles, and, opening the great Bible beside him, pointed to that text, ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’”

“The spade, the plough disturb our ancestors; from human mould we reap our daily bread.” — Young

“Here every drop of honey hides a sting; worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers.” — Cowper

“Hope is like the cork to the net, which keeps the soul from sinking in despair; and fear is like the lead to the net, which keeps it from floating in presumption.” — Watson

It wasn’t the sort of talk that makes biologists comfortable. “We are learning the language in which God created life,” said President Clinton two weeks ago as he announced completion of the map of the human genome — the 3.1 billion units of genetic information stored in our chromosomes.

The President’s words were right on, but to scientists they had a surprising ring. As polls of scientists indicate, the majority of biologists these days think natural selection — not God — created the information in the human genome, over billions of years of evolution.

But as Phillip Johnson argues in his new book, THE WEDGE OF TRUTH, biologists need to approach the origin of genetic information with new eyes. Because, behind the news about completion of the genome map are many other mysteries. For example, are the undirected forces of natural selection (acting on random variation) really able to explain how strange and irregular genetic information arises? And how could a blind evolutionary process write the vast encyclopedia of biological data that we carry around in our cells?

What gives Johnson’s questions such urgency is the genome map itself. Although biologists have finished sequencing the genes, determining the order of the individual letters in the genetic text, they don’t understand most of it. “It’s written in a foreign language,” says geneticist Gerald Rubin, adding, “It’s a very complicated problem.”

Why? Think of it this way. Suppose you found a stone slab covered with strange marks. Some seem to be words in an unknown language, while others are simply random scratchings or gibberish. Well, this is how modern evolutionary biologists view the information in our genome.

In their view, the “gibberish” is simply “junk DNA” — functionless, meaningless scraps and left-overs, which we have inherited from our animal ancestors.

And as they see it, only two forces could explain the origin of our genome: natural laws and blind chance, which come together in the process of natural selection. So if there’s gibberish, you just dismiss it. After all, the author was a blind natural process whose only goal was survival.

But this is a cop-out. What if natural law and chance are incapable of creating such complex information? Even the most ardent Darwinian biologists agree that our genome, despite its vast poorly understood regions, contains tens of thousands of fantastically intricate meaningful sequences. As Johnson argues, “meaningful information-bearing sequences require some THIRD FORCE that works against both repetitive order on the one hand and chaotic chance on the other.” And that, he says, would be a designing mind: The mind of God.

And if God, not a blind natural process, designed the human DNA, then don’t we have good reasons to think that the so-called “junk DNA,” so puzzling to biologists, may have important functions as well — like leading to medical breakthroughs?

In fact, the view that our genome is not just junk, but an intricate language we have yet to understand, holds vast promise — something Darwinian evolution can never offer.

Physicist Paul Davies is the author of a book titled The Mind of God — yet Davies doesn’t even believe in God. So why would he choose that title? The point of the book is that modern science started out with the belief that it was uncovering the very thoughts of God.

Many of us grew up with the conception that science and Christianity are bitter enemies. But that’s actually a misconception. Davies is dead right when he says science started with the conviction that by studying the mathematical structure of creation, scientists catch a glimpse of the Creator’s mind.

In fact, the very idea that creation has a mathematical structure emerged from Christianity. The ancient Greeks, who founded Western philosophy, relegated mathematics to a realm of abstract ideals. They thought the material world was too formless, too unpredictable to be described mathematically.

But Christianity teaches that the material world is God’s handiwork — therefore it is not formless; it is exactly what God wants it to be. The early scientists expected to find precise order in the dust and dirt of the physical world itself.

Take Copernicus. When he proposed that the planets go around the sun instead of the earth, he had no empirical evidence. Without telescopes, observations of the planets fit equally well with an earth- centered system.

The sole factor favoring a sun-centered system was that it was simpler mathematically. And since Copernicus was convinced that God had made the world mathematically, that was good enough for him. Later, of course, he was proved right.

Then there was Kepler, famous for discovering that the orbits of the planets are not circles, as people thought at the time, but ellipses. It started when Kepler noticed a slight mismatch between mathematical calculations of Mars’s orbit and actual observations. The difference was so tiny that other scientists had shrugged it off.

But Kepler was convinced that everything in creation is precisely what God wants it to be. If He wanted the orbits to be circular, they would be exactly circular. And if they were not exactly circular, they must be exactly something else.

Inspired by his Christian faith, Kepler struggled for years to reconcile the slight mismatch in Mars’s orbit-finally hitting upon the discovery that the orbits are actually ellipses.

The same conviction inspired Galileo. The book of nature, Galileo said, is “written by the hand of God in the language of mathematics.” The same conviction also inspired Isaac Newton, who put classical physics on a mathematical basis.

Anyone who studies the history of science is forced to acknowledge that, from the beginning, science and Christianity have been allies, not enemies. Science was founded on the assumption that God created the world with a mathematical structure and that human beings can discover that structure.

Get the true historical picture from a book called The Soul of Science, by Nancy Pearcey and Charles Thaxton. The early scientists were not hostile to religion. On the contrary, they firmly believed they were discovering, as Paul Davies puts it, the Mind of God.

I hope you can enjoy a wonderful and safe labor-less Labor Day!

Now that I’m older, I’ve come to realize that if God wanted me to touch my toes, He would have put them on my knees.

Here in Florida, every May and September we are blest (?) with the arrival of Love-Bugs. They are totally harmless, although they do mess up the front of your car. They are called Love-Bugs because two are always attached together, The female is larger and flies forward while the male is smaller and flies backward. On Wed., Sept. 1st, Betty saw the first ones. So how did they know it was Sept. 1st? Who told them?

As I sit here and look out of my office window at the surrounding Pine forest, I am continually amazed at God’s magnificent handiwork. I watch the birds on the feeder and observe their pecking order. Usually the Blue Jays are the bullies and chase the other birds away, but when the red-headed Woodpecker arrives, even the Blue Jays yield to the domineering Woodpecker. Some folks, unfortunately, are like that, but I’m glad you aren’t one of them.

In Psalm 19:1 (NIV) we read, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” The next time you’re feeling a bit “down”, go out and enjoy God’s marvelous creation (which includes you) — look up into the majestic heavens and say, “O God, forgive me for grumbling.” You’ll feel better!

While I was a missionary in Brazil, my friend, Sebastao, invited me to his hometown of Mareca, a spot-in-the-road town about seventy miles from Rio de Janeiro. He was a twenty-six-year-old factory worker who had visited our congregation and was involved in a Bible study.

Slow-talking, tall, gangly; this fellow was no city slicker. He was a bit too honest, simple, and quick to smile to have any roots in the urban jungle.

I welcomed the opportunity to see some of the Brazilian countryside. What I didn't know, however, was that I was about to learn a lesson on faith.

Waiting for us when we arrived was Sebastao's father, Senhor Jose. He certainly did not look his seventy plus years. Eyes shaded by an old straw hat, he smiled a toothless grin when he saw us. His barreled brown chest and narrow waist testified to thousands of hours of hoeing and planting. His flat bare feet were stained the color of the soil and his hands were crusty and thick.

"Good to have you," he welcomed. You could tell he meant it.

Senhor Jose took me on a tour through his segment of the world. For thirty-seven years he had plowed and tilled his two acres. It was obvious that he knew every hole and turn.

"I fed fourteen mouths off this land," he smiled, fingering a lettuce plant. "Where did you say you were from?"

"The U.S."

"What do you do here?"

I explained a bit about my work. He did not respond immediately, but I could tell he was thinking.

"A missionary, huh? Your job must be pretty easy."

"How's that?" I asked.

"I have no trouble believing in God. After I see what he has done on my little farm, year after year, it is easy to believe." He smiled another toothless grin and yelled to his wife to bring out some beans.

As we drove home, I couldn't help thinking about Senhor Jose. My, what a simple life. No traffic jams, airline schedules, or long lines. Far removed from Wall Street, IRS, and mortgages.

I thought of his faith, his ability to believe, and his surprise that there were some who couldn't. I compared his faith with others I knew had more difficulty believing; a university student, a wealthy import-export man, an engineer. There was such a difference between Jose and the others.

His faith was rooted in the simple miracles that he witnessed every day:

A small seed becoming a towering tree.

A thin stalk pushing back the earth.

A rainbow arching in the midst of the thundercloud.

It was easy for him to believe. I can see why. Someone who witnesses God's daily display of majesty doesn't find the secret of Easter absurd. Someone who depends upon the mysteries of nature for his livelihood doesn't find it difficult to depend on an unseen God for his salvation.

"Nature," wrote Jonathan Edwards, "is God's greatest evangelist."

"Faith," wrote Paul, "does not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of Go."?(1 Corinthians 2:5).

"God's testimony," wrote David, "makes wise the simple"(Ps. 19:7).

God's testimony. When was the last time you witnessed it? A stroll through knee-high grass in a green meadow. An hour listening to seagulls or looking at seashells on the beach. Or witnessing the shafts of sunlight brighten the snow on a crisp winter dawn. Miracles that almost match the magnitude of the empty tomb happen all around us; we only have to pay attention.

“In the beginning,” Scripture says, “God created the heavens and the earth.” That first biblical affirmation points to the priority of the doctrine of creation within the system of Christian doctrine. Nevertheless, even the doctrine of creation presupposes a biblical notion of God and the authority of his revelation in Scripture. The Christian believer does not acknowledge the creation and then infer a Creator. Indeed, it is not God who must be explained by the creation, but creation which must be explained by the Creator. Thus, the very first verse of the Bible affirms the cosmos as the free creation of the sovereign God of Scripture -- the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of creation is the attempt of the Christian believer to come to terms with the relationship between God and the world. As such, it gives proper place to the work of God in creation, points to the nature and purpose of the created world, and distinguishes the Christian theistic worldview from all others.

The starting point of the doctrine of creation is the presupposition of the sovereign God of Scripture. Those first words of Scripture indicate that the central character in the creation narratives is God, not the created order. God acts as the divine Subject, creating a dynamic universe as the object of his love and the theater of his glory. This biblical theism is the foundational affirmation of the doctrine of creation. Creation is inseparable from monotheism.

The most common creed in the Christian church begins with the confession, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” The God of the Bible is not needful of anything outside himself. This self-sufficiency or “aseity” of God precludes any need for creation on God's part. Positively, it affirms the fact that God created the world and all within it out of the freedom of his own sovereign will. With this in view, the divine initiative in creation takes on a powerful meaning. Though needing nothing, God willed not to be alone, but to create a world distinct and other than himself, as the result of his own divine pleasure.

This affirmation places the biblical worldview in opposition to all others. The Israelites were surrounded by pre-biblical religions which placed God over against creation, or suggested a number of gods conspiring to create a universe out of existing chaos and matter. The early Christian church found itself confronted by challenges including Gnosticism, Arianism, and Manichaeism, each positing a worldview in which God was variously placed within creation, over against creation as a dualism, or a scheme in which an evil god created the world in order that a beneficent god might redeem it.

The church quickly affirmed what had been assumed in the Old Testament, that God created the universe out of nothing, that is, out of no pre-existing matter. If the church had allowed an acknowledgement of divine creation as the mere fashioning of existing materials, it would have compromised the nature of God and the biblical testimony. No form of dualism is compatible with biblical theism.

The Hebrew verb used to describe the word of God in creation is distinct from that used to describe the work of a human craftsman in fashioning an artifact. Man may fashion out of what God has created, but only God can truly create. This is the affirmation of creation EX NIHILO -- out of nothing -- without the use of pre-existing materials. The acknowledgement of God's creation of the world EX NIHILO must be central to the Christian affirmation of the doctrine of creation. Some contemporary theological movements have rejected this in favor of an understanding which posits God as the fashioner of pre-existing materials. Any such system presupposes a model of God unworthy of biblical theism. No particle existed prior to God's creative act.

The biblical portrait of the creating God demonstrates a loving God whose character issues naturally in his creation. The loving character of God is woven into the warp and woof of his creation and the creatures within it. The biblical testimony will allow no distinction between the God who creates and the God who redeems. Isaiah pointedly affirms the identity of the creating God as the one with whom Israel must deal (Isaiah 43:15; 45:7; 40:28). Indeed, creation is a Trinitarian event. The prologue to the Gospel of John proclaims the role of the Son as the divine Word of creation through whom all things were made, and “without whom nothing was made that was made,” (John 1:1-5). In like manner, Paul reminded the Colossians that “all things were created through him and for him,” (Colossians 1:15-17). The creating God is thus both Author and Finisher. The God who created the universe as an exercise of his own glory is the very same God who was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, which is the living empowerment of the church, was also manifest in creation.

The means of God's creative activity is not detailed in the biblical creation narratives (Genesis 1-2). The substance of the biblical teaching is God's creation of the universe and all within it by the power of his Word. The biblical language affirms the creation of the world by divine fiat. That is, by the force of his sovereign will God spoke, light appeared, the firmament was made and the waters separated, the seas were created and dry land appeared, and the whole of God's creation was accomplished.

The product of God's creative activity is a universe of seemingly infinite variety, complexity, and mystery. The Genesis creation narratives describe the creation of the world from the most rudimentary distinction between the waters and the dry land, to the pinnacle of creation, man and woman. Genesis 1 moves from the emergence of light through the emergence of dry land, the blossoming of vegetation and the creative abundance of living creatures, to the creation of man and woman.

Of central importance to the interpretation of these verses is the recognition of God's verdict upon his creation. The pristine energy of light, the dryness of land, the swarms of living creatures, the multiplying birds and fishes are all declared “good” in God's sight. This critical judgment is an intrinsic part of the biblical worldview. The created order has meaning and value solely because it is the glorious creation of the Lord of the universe. The creation has no inherent meaning within itself. Rather, it is dependent upon the Creator for both preservation and value. Nevertheless, the biblical affirmation is an unqualified judgment of GOODNESS as God's verdict on creation.

Challenges old and new have been raised against this verdict. Gnosticism thought matter to be evil and only mind to be good. Contemporary religious movements, including the eclectic Christian Science movement, have gone so far as to deny the reality of matter. The biblical affirmation is quite to the contrary. Against materialism, the Christian worldview understands matter to have no value in and of itself. But biblical theism affirms the world as the theater of God's glory. It is creation which is made meaningful by the Creator, not the Creator who derives meaning from the creation.

It is the divine creation of humankind which forms the climax of the biblical creation narratives. The biblical teachings concerning the creation of humans point to the special character of humanity as made in the very image of God. Man, contrary to the claims of secularism, is not the accidental by-product of natural occurrences. Though Scripture does not indicate any scientific means for the creation of man and woman (nor for any other dimension of creation), it makes clear the identity of humanity as a special creation of God by the power of his word and will. Thus, humanity is granted a value inconsistent with a secularist worldview.

Within the scheme of the created order, humanity plays a strategic part. Two biblical themes form the basis for this special role. The first is that of dominion. Humanity, made in the image of God, is to possess and exercise dominion over the remainder of creation. This dominion, or rulership, is exercised by humans in the manipulation of creation to bring about harvest, bounty, energy, and beauty. It is seen in the planting and reaping of crops, the herding of animals, the harnessing of rivers, and the construction of shelter.

This dominion theme must be balanced with the other major theme of humanity's responsibility within creation. By God's mandate, humans must exercise their dominion with an understanding of mutuality and responsibility. The biblical notion of dominion is not seen in the rape of the land, but in the careful stewardship of natural resources and the other creatures which share this planet. As the pinnacle of God's creative activity, humans stand responsible for their stewardship of fellow creatures and the earth. Indeed, a helpful corrective which has emerged in contemporary theology is the recognition that the cosmos is neither “mere nature” nor “our world,” but is most properly “God's creation.” Humans are granted a high degree of delegated agency within God's creation, but it remains fundamentally God's alone. This affirmation underlines the tremendous charge of stewardship to humankind by the Creator.

Creation is not a brute fact without meaning. It derives its meaning from the divine character and will. As the theater of God's redemptive activity, creation is not static, but is moving toward the goal established by the Creator before the foundation of the universe. Creation, like the humans within it, has a future.

Paul describes the creation as in need of redemption from the bondage of decay and travail -- the results of the entry of sin into the created order (Romans 8:19-23). The Old Testament speaks of the new heavens and the new earth, which is the eventual purpose of God in reconciliation (Isaiah 66:22). Paul spoke of the dramatic transformation of the believer as a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). The writer of the Apocalypse recorded a vision of a new heaven and a new earth even as the Creator spoke: “Behold, I make all things new,” (Revelation 21:1-8). The essential meaning of these affirmations is that God controls the destiny of the universe he created. The cosmos does not exist alongside God as a reality out of control. Rather, it exists as the theater of his redemptive activity, the reach of which includes the entire cosmos.

Thus, the Christian doctrine of creation is directly connected to the doctrine of redemption. For this reason, a failure to affirm the biblical doctrine of creation leads to inevitable compromise on the doctrine of redemption. In reality, we simply cannot minimize the importance of this doctrine, nor can we surrender biblical truth in the face of modern denials. We must get it right from the beginning.

*

If you hold your thumb at arms length toward the sky, there are more than 250,000 galaxies behind the space of you thumb nail.

________

Source: Popular Science TV Program

“God is sovereign” is more than a slogan, it’s a fundamental truth that transcends our mortal existence but also is evident in it, too.

He is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-present, and no other being has even one of these Godhead qualities.

During creation, He simply said “Let there be” and whatever He spoke came into existence. In the end, He simply will speak and vanquish His foes.

He is sovereign even within the design of His creation, such that no man can claim not to know there is a God (Romans 1:20).

I’ve always accepted the truth of God’s sovereignty over all creation; I just hadn’t much considered the significance of this truth until while serving as a naval aviator I visited Nagasaki, one of two cities leveled by nuclear bombs in the effort to end the war with Japan.

I’m not sure what I expected to find.

I do recall thinking surely they had to rebuild the city at some distance from the original site of what had been destroyed. And I remember being stunned by the bustling port city thriving in shipbuilding, fishing and tourism -- and by the fact it had been rebuilt on the same ground which had been scorched by the nuclear blast.

It was especially remarkable to me after I visited the Peace Park built at the hypocenter of the explosion and read the extent of the human toll: 73,884 killed immediately and 74,909 injured (several hundred thousand became diseased or died later due to radiation exposure). Yet there I stood a mere 40 years or so later on the very site where the power of the nuclear detonation was first felt.

It caused a shift in my thinking about war and about taking an enemy’s life -- even acting under orders of the authorities ordained by God, it is not a thing to take lightly. I can only imagine President Truman’s struggle with the decision to unleash what remains the most powerful manmade force used in such an intentionally destructive way.

My visit also helped me develop a greater understanding about the sovereignty of God displayed in His design of creation. After absorbing the most destructive power man could generate at the time, God’s handiwork recovered and flourished -- it is not so fragile that man can destroy it.

Physician and Christian Takashi Nagai (a Nagasaki resident who was wounded; his home, only hundreds of feet from ground zero, destroyed; and his wife burned instantly to ashes by the bomb) wrote about the destruction and aftermath, and the will of God.

He also chronicled the recovery of the city.

After the devastation, the government warned those who remained that no plants would grow in Nagasaki for at least 70 years and urged survivors to leave. However, Nagai refused to go and instead watched for signs of recovery, and soon learned the limits of the experts’ understanding about God’s design in creation.

“After three weeks, we found a swarm of ants,” he wrote in “The Bells of Nagasaki.”

But he also discovered other creatures.

“After a month, we found worms in large numbers. Then we found rats running around.”

“The” experts had been wrong. Life was bustling at ground zero only weeks after the nuclear detonation. Nagai had discovered just how robustly God has designed creation to support mankind, the crown of His creation.

There is some critical theology about creation that reveals God’s purpose in His design.

First, all creation glorifies God, and all of nature points to Him (Colossians 1:16-17). Psalm 19:1 says “the heavens declare the glory of God” and Romans 1:20 adds that “His eternal power and divine nature” are evident “in the things that have been made.”

Second, mankind is the crown of God’s creation: Only man and woman were created in His image (Genesis 1:27), and salvation is for mankind alone (1 John 2:2), not any other of His creations; not even angels share in this gift (1 Peter 1:12).

Third, God is faithful to keep His promises (e.g. Deuteronomy 7:9, 1 Corinthians 1:9): Specifically, He was purposeful in designing creation to support the existence of man (Genesis 1:26) until His judgment (2 Peter 3:7).

It’s not that the Bible doesn’t require man to provide good stewardship of creation. One of the most profound statements of environmental conservation is God’s prohibition against using fruit trees in a siege war (Deuteronomy 20:20) -- in essence, protecting man from harming himself.

Science also gives evidence of the same kind of protection God has designed into the ecosystem.

Much has been made about man’s contribution to global warming and climate change. The most frequently cited statistics involve manmade (anthropogenic) contributions to the concentrations of greenhouse gases (which “trap” heat) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and miscellaneous gases like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Human activities have been documented as producing about 5.53 percent concentration of these gases combined, resulting in a anthropogenic contribution (through these four source gases) to global warming of about 3.3 percent (not all gases contribute the same to global warming).

However, these four gases compose only a small portion of greenhouse gases. WATER VAPOR -- which is 99.999 percent of natural origin -- actually constitutes earth’s most significant greenhouse gas and accounts for about 95 percent of the greenhouse effect. Thus, balanced against all greenhouse gases, including water vapor, anthropogenic contributions -- what man adds -- to natural sources of global warming amount to just 0.28 percent –- or twenty-eight hundredths of one percent -- of the greenhouse effect.

Although this information confirms the limitations on man’s ability to disrupt God’s system design, it does not deny that climate change occurs. In fact, the one constant about the climate is change. Ice cores show a longterm pattern of a 1,500-year climate cycle of moderate warming and cooling swings associated with sun activity and not anthropogenic causes.

However, mankind can have a negative environmental impact, even a severe one. Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Love Canal show humans are capable of imperiling at least for a while the paradise God has provided to support life.

Yet, it is a leap -- scientifically or scripturally -- to suggest man can shortcut God’s sovereignty represented in His creation design.

There are good reasons for adopting sensible practices for limiting pollution and environmental change. Biblical principles of stewardship like Deuteronomy 20:20 instruct us to protect the natural provisions He has created for man to use to sustain life. Also, as a practical matter most people don’t like to taste, smell, touch, see or hear pollution. In context of biblical mandates to treat neighbors with dignity and respect (e.g. Romans 13:9-10), believers likewise should be considerate enough not to create pollution that others must endure.

Unfortunately, the creation care movement of the evangelical left appears guided more by political, philosophical and emotional satisfaction and less by theological conviction. Indeed, in arguing their position, proponents tend to lean heavily on adages about environmental stewardship only to leap to conclusions that man is responsible for global warming and climate change. Doctrine seems secondary -- with some offering little more than melodramatic clichés like “When we destroy creation, it is no different than tearing a page out of the Bible.”

Moreover, God’s design in creation points to His glory, power and majesty, especially in the face of harmful anthropogenic activity. Mankind can burn forests, remove mountaintops and even scorch the world with nuclear weapons. But “the” experts’ direst predictions of irreversibility continue to fall well short of what is claimed.

Few Americans seem to recall Carl Sagan’s forecast of a “nuclear winter” he said would result from Saddam Hussein’s then-threatened scorched earth strategy for Kuwaiti’s oilfields.

In an op-ed piece penned for the Baltimore Sun and published Jan. 31, 1991, Sagan was adamant “the consequences could be dire.”

“Quickly capping 363 oil well fires in a war zone is impossible,” he wrote with Robert Turco.

“The fires would burn out of control until they put themselves out,” he offered, suggesting the resulting soot would stretch across all of South Asia and be carried around the world.

“Beneath such a pall sunlight would be dimmed, temperatures lowered and droughts more frequent,” endangering food supplies, he claimed in advocating that war should be averted.

However, God’s creation showed more resiliency than Sagan gave it credit. The soot from nearly 600 oil well fires dissipated and although the region experienced a relatively short-term and small rise in temperature, the weather patterns recovered rather quickly.

In the end, the revelatory nature of creation is not altered by human activities. God said man is without excuse because His power is evident in creation (Romans 1:20). That implies creation will continue to declare the glory of God right up to the day His plan is fulfilled. A creation destroyed by human sinfulness could hardly be said to reveal God’s eternal power and divine nature.

God is sovereign and His design in creation manifests it. Suggesting otherwise ignores God’s revelation of truth in His Word and also rejects the evidence in what He has done to fulfill His promise to provide for mankind’s existence.

Jesus didn’t just come to earth to save us from our sins, but to invite humanity to participate in the divine life.

More than two centuries before the Reformation, a theological debate broke out pitting the premier theologian Thomas Aquinas against an upstart Scottish Franciscan priest, John Duns Scotus. The heart of the debate circled around the question “Would the event we celebrate at Christmas have occurred if humanity had not disobeyed God?”

Like most theologians, Aquinas viewed the Incarnation as God’s remedy for a fallen planet, a rescue plan that God first prophesied in Genesis 3. Aquinas pointed to Scripture passages that highlight the Cross as God’s redemptive response to a broken relationship with humanity.

Duns Scotus, nicknamed “the Scotsman,” saw much more at stake. To him, the Word becoming flesh, as described in the prologue to John’s gospel, must surely represent the Creator’s primary design — God’s original goal — and not a plan B. Duns Scotus cited passages from Ephesians and Colossians on the cosmic Christ in whom all things have their origin, hold together, and move toward consummation.

The evangelical tradition often emphasizes the atonement and Christ living in us. We urge children to “accept Jesus into your heart,” an image that can be both comforting and confusing. More pietistic strains speak of “the exchanged life” in which Christ lives in the believer. Yet far more often — 164 times in Paul’s letters, according to one author — the New Testament speaks of us being “in Christ.” At a time when theories of the atonement seem mystifying to moderns, we could learn from the Christ-centered view of Creation once expounded by a Scottish theologian from the high Middle Ages.

Did Jesus only come to earth as an accommodation to human failure? Was the Incarnation a humiliation God had to endure, or was it the center point for all creation? Duns Scotus and his school suggested the Incarnation was God’s underlying motive for Creation, not merely a correction to it. God spun off this vast and beautiful universe for the singular purpose of sharing the divine life and love with humanity, intending all along for us to participate in eternal fellowship with him.

Ultimately, the church fathers decided that both approaches had biblical support and could be accepted as orthodox. And although most Western theologians followed Aquinas, prominent Catholics like Karl Rahner have since taken a closer look at Duns Scotus.

Imagine a time before the creation of matter. What did God have in mind with our planet, one of trillions in the universe? One answer to that question is Jesus: that he came to show us earthlings what God is like and what we should be like. The history recorded in the Old Testament serves as a prelude for God’s supreme act of incarnation. And as the Gospels’ genealogies stress, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and others provided Jesus a family and a culture into which he would be born.

When Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, she participated in an act of divine creation that continues to this day. Paul’s recurrent phrase “in Christ” hints at a reality made vivid in his metaphor of the church as the body of Christ, which extends the Incarnation through time. And when Jesus ascended, he turned over this grand mission to his followers.

Hang on — am I suggesting that the miracle of Christmas is somehow replicated and carried out in the lives of those who identify as Jesus’ followers? Some immediate objections arise, such as how fallen human beings such as ourselves could possibly be entrusted with this divine mission.

In the words of Eugene Peterson: “Friends, we are immersed in great and marvelous realities. Creation! Salvation! Resurrection! But when we come up dripping out of the waters of baptism and look around, we observe to our surprise that the community of the baptized is made up of people just like us: unfinished, immature, neurotic, stumbling, singing out of tune much of the time, forgetful, and boorish. Is it credible that God would put all these matters of eternal significance into the hands of such as we?”

In a sermon to his theology students at Oxford, Austin Farrer articulated this question in a different way: “What are we to do about the yawning gulf which opens between this Christhood of ours and our actual performance ... between what Christ has made us and what we make of ourselves?”

His answer is simple: We do the very thing Jesus’ disciples did. On the first day of the week, we gather to “reassemble the whole body of Christ here, not a member lacking, when the sun has risen; and have the resurrection over again.” We remind ourselves, to borrow Paul’s words, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (Rom. 8:1, 6:11, 2 Cor. 5:17)!

In short, we confront the stunning truth that God gazes at us through the redemptive lens of the Son who became incarnate and dwelt among us.

Then, assured of that new identity, we go forth to revitalize God’s world. Duns Scotus called his approach the doctrine of the Absolute Primacy of Christ in the universe. Those who root their identity in Christ have a holy mission to advance his kingdom. Christians minister to the poor and suffering not out of humanistic motives but because the least of these also express the image of God. We insist on justice because God insists on it throughout Scripture.

And we honor nature because it is God’s work of art and the backdrop for Christ’s incarnation. As Simone Weil put it, “The beauty of the world is Christ’s tender smile for us coming through matter.”

Some time ago, I had a conversation with Makoto Fujimura, an esteemed artist who founded the International Arts Movement to encourage Christian artists to look to their own faith for inspiration. “So many contemporary artists turn to other religions, like Buddhism,” he said to me. “I remind them that God is about Creation from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation, in which God promises to make all things new.”

Among Jesus’ final words in Revelation are these: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 22:13). In this light, Christmas represents God’s masterpiece, the as-yet-unfinished act of cosmic restoration.