God’s Creative Love
“And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
Indeed. It was (is) very good! The other day, as I was outside enjoying the cool, quiet night sitting by a modest campfire, I heard the sounds from a pair of sandhill cranes nearby. “What a unique sound,” I thought to myself. And then I thought about the myriad of creature voices I could hear all around me at that very moment. I could hear the “laughter” of a pileated woodpecker, the chirping of two tree frogs conversing, and the subdued muttering of a wild turkey just over the hill. I could hear the numerous and varied songs of a multitude of different birds, unique not only in their voices but also in the colors and patterns of their plumage.
And at that moment, I was moved to worship and thank God for His love expressed in creation. When I think of the variety of plants and creatures that He personally (and perfectly) designed for our enjoyment (except for maybe spiders…), I find myself in awe of Him. And I find myself very grateful.
There are an estimated 18,000 species of birds on this planet. There are over 310 species of just pigeons! How awesome is our God who took the time to create such variety to enjoy! I would have thought I was doing pretty good if I had created ten different birds. Aren’t you glad He didn’t just give us crows and the only sound we ever heard from the sky was a scratchy “caaaww!” Or what if all fish were the same, looking and tasting like large minnows? Instead, He gives us walleyes, bluegills, shrimp, lobster, haddock, etc. And we don’t have just one type of tree. We have over 60,000 tree species in the world. Each has its unique look and usefulness from the eastern white pine to the swamp white oak to the humble fig tree. Some can be used for fruit, some for furniture, while others to build homes or make paper. But they were all designed by God for us to enjoy and to use.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
It always amazes me when someone can look at the incredible world around us, with all of its beauty and countless examples of God’s creative signature, and think that it all happened by accident. I can’t judge, though. I was there once. I believed everything I was taught in school – bought into the lie that “science proves that everything came to be through the process of evolution.” And I loved science. I was just sold a version of it that had hidden motives that wanted to steer me away from God. But true science in its purest form, that is, science without an agenda actually drives us toward God because it leads us to discover the amazing intricacies of His creation. True science reveals God’s creative glory; it doesn’t try to hide it from us.
“Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.”
So there! I can love science, and I can love God! It is exciting to discover the incredible ways that God has designed the world around us, down to the last atom and molecule. Even just studying the way He designed the human body should fill us with awe and wonder because any rational human being would recognize that nothing as intricate as even just the eyeball could possibly have happened by accident – it took a creative genius (though I confess that title seems much too small for God).
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”
Also, there’s another wonderful outcome of science in its purest form; we get to take those amazing things we discover in God’s creation and use them in our feeble attempts to create. Granted, we can’t make something out of nothing, as He did, but we can take pieces of the things He’s created and make new things. Doesn’t that reveal what a loving Father He is? In some small way, He allows us to be like Him; He blesses us with the ability to learn, discover, dream, and make new things with the building blocks He’s given us to “play” with!
So I will praise Him whenever I hear the sound of a trumpeter swan in the distance or see a bald eagle soaring overhead. I will praise Him when I look at the beautiful colors of a petunia or the warm tones of the setting sun on a summer night. I will praise Him for the variety of foods He has given us to eat. I will thank Him for His love expressed in and through the creation He has made for us to enjoy.
And I will pray for those who don’t have eyes to see the wonders of His love...yet.
“For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
