the great things which fill us humans with wonder” (Confessions
XII.8.8). This body of evidence should convince the Christian
that the primary reason for creation, the purpose for which it
is so good, is the greater glorification of God.
Stepping down from this high-level abstraction, we must ask
ourselves: how exactly does creation glorify its Creator? Our
senses and emotions easily provide us with a piece of the answer.
Who among us will deny that the laws of nature are consistent,
that friendship is sweet, that little children are adorable, or
that summer ice cream is delicious? Certainly a God who
would think to place such things in His creation (and enable
us to enjoy them) is good and worthy of praise, and we should
worship Him because of these gifts. But thinking a step
further, it cannot be that glorification comes only through
humanity’s appreciation, or what reason would there be for
every remote corner of the universe into which humanity
cannot even see? Scripture acknowledges this as well, with
Isaiah beseeching the very mountains and forests to break
forth into song (Isaiah 42:8), and John the apostle describing
“every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth
and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who
sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor
and glory and might forever and ever!’” (Revelation 5:13).
Evidently, the mountains and forests cannot actually sing,
and the creatures of the world cannot actually speak, but is
it possible that their mere existence is a testimony to God’s
nature, one that is wholly pleasing to Him? If God’s original
creation was purely good, then perhaps simply being as God
intended is a form of worship. And so, by heeding the laws
of His creation, the nucleus of an atom, held together by the
strong force, pleases God, as does the Andromeda Galaxy
while it hurtles towards our home at 110 km/s.
Two objections quickly follow in the wake of this particular
view of God’s creation. The first pertains to the truism that
the world is not perfect, and this objection cannot be perfectly
satisfied, though we will still spend some time acknowledging
it. The second is the problem presented by a pervasive sense
of mediocrity in the world, which breaks apart quickly under
Christian theology.
Any person can look at the world and see plainly that the bad
almost seems to outweigh the good. Wealth is so unevenly
distributed that the world contains both those who must feed
their families with mud and those who enjoy such abundance
that their own bodies, adapted for scarcity, turn against them.
This past year, we have watched disease burn across the entire
globe, ravaging humanity’s most vulnerable. Long-standing
racial injustices against America’s Black communities are
still festering. And issues persist on a personal level as well.
We fight with our friends and family for no better reason
than to appease our fickle emotions, and even the best
of us cannot eliminate daily hypocrisies and indignities.
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