The beautiful late autumn mornings that we’ve had of late coupled with time spent reading the early chapters of Genesis have caused me to reflect on the majesty and mystery of the world that you and I live in. There is to my mind three key truths in Genesis chapter 1 that enrich the lives of all who embrace them.
It starts with…
➡️ Rhyme - “creation sings the Father’s song…” (lyric from a Keith and Kirstyn Getty song)
One of the most striking features of Genesis 1 is its pattern. The story is structured around the theme of one week of six days leading to a seventh. A regular refrain moves the story along: “there was evening and there was morning.”
Although it’s written as prose, there is clearly a poetic dimension to the account of creation. It’s a poem of beauty and grandeur and it acts as a song of praise to the majesty of God the Creator. Genesis sings the praise of the majestic Creator of everything.
There’s a wonderful section in “The Magician’s Nephew” (the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis) where Digory and Polly along with a London Cab driver find themselves in the land of Narnia. In that moment they are taken back to the creation of Narnia. Lewis imagines…
“In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing...It was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful they had ever heard. It was so beautiful they could hardly bear it...Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it...The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was ablaze with stars...Finally Aslan’s voices cries out, ‘Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak.’”
I love what C.S. Lewis does at this point in his story. When the cab driver hears the song of creation and when he sees the world unfolding out of that song he says,
“I’d have been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this.”
Hearing the song of creation and witnessing its effect profoundly changed that Londoner.
Creation sings the Father's song;
He calls the sun to wake the dawn
And run the course of day
'till evening falls in crimson rays.
His fingerprints in flakes of snow,
His breath upon this spinning globe,
He charts the eagle's flight;
commands the newborn baby's cry.
Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;
Tell the wonders of creation's King.
If your ears are deaf to the beautiful song of creation then ask the Lord to remove that dulness so that its beauty floods your soul.
Rhyme moves on to...
➡️ Reverence - creation speaks about the majesty and mystery of God
The poem of beauty and grandeur which forms the opening chapter of our Bibles is a hymn of praise to the majesty of God the Creator.
Through its structured harmonies our minds and hearts are lifted to contemplate God as the source and sustainer of all that is. This chapter invites us to bow in humility before his creative Word.
Genesis 1 also preserves and points us to the mysteries of creation. There is much about the world we live in which we don’t and can’t understand. And the writer doesn’t attempt to explain creation. There’s another time and place for those questions. However, with reverence he wants us to be caught up into its wonder.
In the opening chapter of the Bible we are brought in touch with a faith which holds on to us when the world around us is mysterious and uncertain. In a sense, faith is what God gives us to hold us in our uncertainties.
If your heart is cold to these realities then let the deep faith of this Genesis author lift your heart and mind again to the majesty and mystery of God.
And rhyme and reverence conclude with..
➡️ Rhythm - creation celebrates work and rest
The beginning of Genesis 2 brings us to the final stanza in the song of creation. “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.”
What is God’s rest? It is his delight in creation. It is God looking with joy on his world and saying, ‘This is very good’.
Genesis chapters 1 and 2 emphasis that we are made in the image of God; called to reflect this rhythm of work and rest. Do you truly recognise this high calling on your life? The Creator calls you and I to live in such a way that reflects his character.
If you struggle with questions of identity or worth, then know that you are made in the image of God. This is where the source of human dignity comes from. Life is God’s gift.
There is much more in creation’s song to contemplate, not least our responsibility to care for this planet. But perhaps reflection on these truths will be enough to focus our minds this week. And as we do, maybe C.S. Lewis’s cab driver will inspire us, “I’d have been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this.”
(picture - Greenbank Gardens, Clarkston, Glasgow)
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