I remember a comic I happened upon in a newspaper that speaks so truthfully to our culture’s deprived (distorted maybe?) appreciation of nature.  In the comic a little boy who has obviously played too many video games is being led out the front door by his mother; in his hand he still brandishes the wireless game control.  Peering around with amazement, as if for the first time, at the front yard with its well coated tree and green, green grass, we find him saying: “Wow!! I think I played this level before!”  We laugh, but isnt it true?  When was the last time you have had your breath taken away by a sunset or watched birds sing in the trees (although animal behavior biologists would say they are screaming at each other to keep out), but when was the last time you associated “awe” with nature?

As a Christian, what is your view on nature?  Or do you have one? I wanted to share an insight that before now had escaped me, from a man by the name of Herman Bavinck.  He was a theologian, but an incredibily insightful one.  I am reading through his book, In the Beginning: Foundations of Creation Theology and Bavinck simply asks, “What is the difference between a Christian’s view of the universe as opposed to other views?”  The first thing that comes to mind is, well God created it.  He would agree with you on this, but then he continues by saying: “But there is much more.”  Ok.  I know that we are created in his image (imagio dei) and that God intends for us to be good stewards of all that he created.  In all honesty this is what first came to my mind.  “But there is much more.” 

The foundation of both diversity and unity is in God.  It is he who created all things in accordance with his unsearchable wisdom, who continually upholds them in their distinctive natures, who guides and governs them in keeping with their own increated energies and laws, and who, as the supreme good and ultimate goal of all things, is pursued and desired by all things in their measure and manner. (Bavinck  56)

In order to understand what is being said here it is important to understand that there are fundamentally two religious alternatives.  One is pantheism and the other is materialism.  The former sought to explain the world as deity itself which was always changing and trying to express itself (the parts make up the whole- the birds, trees, man, rocks, etc. are God).  The latter sought to express creation as a forming and reforming of atoms (all created things could be reduced to a mere collection of atoms).  They both, however, are ruled by the same ”God” and its name was fate. ”Both fail to appreciate the riches and diversity of the world, erase the boundaries between heaven and earth, matter and spirit, soul and body, man and animal, intellect and will, time and eternity, Creator and creature, being and nonbeing, and dissolve all distinctions in a bath of deadly uniformity.  Both deny the existence of a conscious purpose and cannot point to a cause or a destiny for the existence of the world and its history.” (Bavinck  56)  We only need to keep in mind that unity is not uniformity.  So either way, given the validity of either two alternatives, wipes away any sense of significance.  It goes to the root question that has been hounding philosophers for ages: How can there be unity within the diversity or diversity in the unity? 

Christianity and the Genesis account can answer this question.  God created everything with its own intended purpose or task.  The sun was set in the sky to “rule over the day”, the moon “the night”, and the stars “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” and all of these to “to give light on the earth.” (Gensis 1:14-17)  We also know that God made plants, animals and humans with their own distinct natures (this is the fault of Darwinian evolution that would melt the distinction of man into an ancestoral neanderthal and then into its supposed ancestor).  Within the very first chapter of Genesis we find that God created a diversity of things.  What about the unity?  The unity is in God, thus, my primary quote: ”The foundation of both diversity and unity is in God.”  Bavinck point out  that the usages of “world” in the Old and New Testament have richness in meaning:

The words ‘wlm (Eccles. 1:4; 3:11) and aiones (Heb. 1:2) assume the idea that the world has duration, or age, that a history culminates in a specific goal. The Greek word kosmos and the Latin mundus, on the other hand, stress the beauty and harmony of the world.  And in fact the world is both. . . . the world is both a history and a work of art. (57 scripture added and photo by Ian Britton)

   It is a simple truth.  From even the smallest living thing we find in creation are striving “upward to where the light and life of God is and at the same time it moves forward to a God-glorifying end.” We can say that creation, the universe or world has both a horizontal and vertical purpose to them.  To the extent that the world comes to its intended end will it also display more clearly the perfections of God, and we can rejoice knowing that the end itself will display God perfectly. 

So the next time you step outside your door take a moment to look up and look around.  We as Christians are witnessing something great.  We are not left without hope, direction or purpose and subject to the cold hands of fate.  Ours is a life rich with oppurtunities to rejoice yet again in the very goodness, glory, wisdom, and power of God.  A God who inscribed beauty in the distinct diversity of the created universe and unites all things in its richness in himself.  As I close, I believe I can hear the birds singing. . .    

photos by Ian Briton