December 1st - Creation

Creation

We went for a walk at a nature reserve today, so that we could take some time to enjoy God's creation. And it really was beautiful. The sun hung low in the sky, casting a golden glow upon the water. The bare trees swayed gently in the breeze, dark against the frosty sky. The air was bitterly cold, making my ears tingle and adding a necessity to holding the hubby's hand, for I had forgotten my gloves. There's something thrilling about the cold of winter. It makes me feel more alive, though I did envy B, wrapped up in the sling, snuggled against Daddy's chest. When I see the natural world, I find it difficult to understand how anyone could fail to see the hand of the Creator in it all.


Today's Jesse Tree decoration is the Earth to symbolise Creation. Over dinner we read Genesis 1:1-31 and John 1:1-5, 9-14. The Genesis account of creation doesn't make reference to Jesus, though we do see that God is more than one person, but through reading John's account, we discover that Jesus was there from the beginning. God's word spoke everything into being, and that word was Jesus.

We also read C.S. Lewis's account of the creation of Narnia in The Magician's Nephew - my favourite Narnia story. It's an absolutely stunning piece of writing, full of beauty and life and magic. It's very easy to read the Genesis creation account and not really realise how awesome it is, but this passage in the Narnia story makes Creation more real and more fantastic somehow. It tells how Aslan sings everything into being. My favourite part of the Genesis account is, "He also made the stars." (Genesis 1:16b) A throwaway comment almost, an afterthought, as if God just got a bit free with His creating and thought He'd add a sprinkle of glitter because it would look nice.

My favourite part of the Narnia account is also about the stars:

Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by the other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leapt out - single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. (The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis)

Doesn't it make the creation account so much more real? And doesn't it make you wonder, why would God, who was so concerned with making the universe beautiful, for no other reason than to enjoy it, would bother with us? We are so insignificant, so ugly and cruel and wasteful, and yet He created us and gave us the earth as His gift to us. And then when we messed up, He came down and became like us. I find it truly amazing that Jesus made everything that exists, and yet humbled Himself to come down to earth and become a part of that which He had created. That is what we celebrate at Christmas - God becoming man, walking among us, and coming to us vulnerable, weak and helpless. How humbling that the Creator considered me important enough, valuable enough to lower Himself to my level in order that I might one day be raised up!

I'll leave you with the prayer at the end of the Creation story in B's Children of God: Storybook Bible:
"Dear God, help me to enjoy and care for your beautiful earth."