Advent #3 Creation and Creator
The Creative Spirit of the Universe
During these past weeks I have been reflecting on the writings of Isaiah to lead me deeper into the Advent story of our God who always comes toward us. We hear of such a movement as the Spirit of God comes upon his chosen Servant as told in Isaiah Chapter Eleven:
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord. (Isa 11:1-3).
The prophet carries on to describe the characteristics of “righteousness and justice” that shape the Prince’s kingdom. Moreover, he spells out the beatific nature of his realm as demonstrated by the “wolf and lamb dwelling harmoniously together.”
Thinking about God as One who comes towards us and the advent of his sterling Prince my mind cast towards the created order of God’s blissful dominion. In my meanderings I thought of Lorna Green who contemplated such ideas from the backwoods of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
She begins her reflection by asking the question,
What can we say of the Creator as we observe the results of His/Her rich imagination?
The Creator loved colour. God could have made a black-and-white universe. Colour is a great miracle: everywhere we look there is colour, in every shade and hue imaginable. . .
The Creator loved shapes—bare branches, animal shapes, delicately pointed leaves.
The Creator loved textures—fuzzy bees, slippery smooth fish, prickly nuts and porcupines, the different barks of trees.
The Creator loved sounds. We could be living in a soundless world, but instead we have the early morning chorus of birds, the sound of wind in the trees, of rain on the roof, of waves on the shore, of the clinking of ice breaking up on a Spring night.
The Creator loved variety. God was not satisfied with one kind of fish. And so it is for all the other animals, for ducks and frogs, for penguins and earthworms, and thousands of kinds of insects. The Creator has not simply favoured the human—one instrument—but wanted a full orchestra. ( Lorna Green, Earth Age: A New Vision of God, the Human and the Earth.)
Such considerations flowing from Isaiah’s story raise for me the beauty of God’s creation and his commitment to maintaining it as evidenced in the revelation of his Prince of Peace. He will not allow it to forever slide into a degraded disarray but will once again restore it to its pristine glory.
During this season of Advent may we take up the prophet’s charge by caring for the created order and all who tread upon it. For deep in our hearts we know that love for our neighbour cannot exist without love for our earth.