Opening Creation

"The instrument or means which God made use of is His omnipotent Word, thus Paul notes that through Him all things are made".

Luther on Genesis 1:3.

It's been a pretty chilly winter here, but the bright days have meant that braving the cold reaps a reward.
This last weekend, I ventured out with a friend to view the magnificence of Bedruthan Steps on Cornwall's West coast - one of the most spectacular landscapes on these shores, where huge stone pillars rise from the golden sands, like titans marking the limits of the land and sea. I always feel inspired at that spot, nature is so immediate, and it helps to remind me just how normal the miraculous actually is.

It's often hard in our modern world to see all that we touch, taste, smell and view as a miracle, but the revelation of Old and New Testaments speak together with a clear voice - God formed these things by His Word - the very same Word which generates faith in us to trust in His mercy and redemption. When we look upon the majesty of creation, bare of our pretenses or impositions, we are encountering a life, a miracle that is akin to regeneration, and that is why both Creation and Redemption "speak' so loudly of the nature and closeness of God - they are both formed and sustained by the same living Word.

The saints have always known that this 'Word' is not some ethereal or obscure esoterica, some elite, occult prize for the odd adept that aspires high enough. This Word walked openly with Adam and Eve when they were naked in Eden, met with Abram as that man became the father of a nation, and appeared many times to His people throughout the history of redemption. His visage is so deep, so real, that even death could not mar it but for an instant, affirmed so clearly by His friends who recognized Him when risen from the grave.

The instrument of all things good is the person of Jesus Christ - He was as much in the knitting of the weave of time and space as He is in our breaking bread and sharing life.

When He walked this earth in flesh, He showed us that as In Eden, all of life was meant to be good and meaningful - that Creation itself should indeed be the theater for an eternal unfolding of God's working in the very tapestry of our culture - work, rest and play.
Because of the disruption of sin, we have barely witnessed the overture, but the surety of redemption informs us that the true grand performance is not far away.

We need to look upon the world, upon our lives, as something integral to a great work - the eternal unfolding revelation of the love and communion of the Godhead, through the Word and Spirit, to the work of His hands. That is the abundant life we now begin to share.