The Space Where Dreams Are Born: Part 5

Friday, Sep. 18, 2009 Posted: 5:03:52PM HKT

Creation animated with the reality of God

“The heavens are telling the glory of God . . . Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.” (Psalm 19:1)

Madeleine L’Engle’s analysis of true art as an incarnational expression of “cosmos in chaos,” inherently designed to elicit from us a sustained pause, points to the grander aesthetic purpose of creation itself. Jesus in fact encourages us to “consider” the “lilies of the field,” in all their “splendor,” that we may perceive spiritual truths from contemplating their beauty.⁴⁰ We thus live in a symbolic universe. To say that creation is symbolic does not mean that it’s not real, but rather that the reality of creation is deeply animated with spiritual realities. This is a sacramental meaning of the term “symbolic. For the very “realness” and goodness of creation, is as C. S. Lewis explains, a “transposition” of God’s yet to be finished creation; for this “lower reality,” is presently “drawn into the higher,” and “part of it.” Yet as accurate and real as God’s present world is, it is only a sketch; a real sketch, but still not a complete representation. For there are yet even still more “colours,” lines, and shades presently being filled into creation.⁴¹

“’Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:24)
“In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 18:28)
“In him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17)
He sustains all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3)

The extent of God’s presence goes all the way in and through the very molecular structure of the universe. As the Scripture says, it is He who “sustains all things” in their place. “No atomic particle is so small that God is not fully present to it . . . no space is without the divine presence.⁴² Yet God is the “Wholly Other,” than anything He has created, and He is “Wholly Other” than the very space He set aside for creation to exist before Him.

In this symbolic universe, the divine purpose of whatever is good, is that it would stir the sublime already resident within our human psyche— towards a consciousness of God. Creation does this by evoking our imagination. And by posturing our imagination towards creation, we can discern the sacred in and through it.⁴³ So if creation is inherently symbolic, then the purpose of beauty is to evoke spiritual realities. That’s why the Psalm reads, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” The reason is that creation is animated with the reality of God, and conscious of God’s reality. The Psalmist suggests that living creatures “seek their food from God” (Ps 104:21, 27), and live by the Spirit of God (Ps 104:29-30). It may well be that at least living things, possess some kind of “God consciousness.”

Now modern Christians, particularly Evangelicals, generally display an indifference towards personification in the Bible. They also find little “relevance” or a certain paganism reflected in so much of the Church’s ancient traditions regarding the sacredness of creation. But the ancient Hebrews, were perfectly comfortable with directing their speech towards created things, even enjoining both inanimate and animate entities, whether on earth or in the heavens, to join them in praise to God. We can appreciate St Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures, where he describes the sun, moon, earth and air, fire and water, life and death, as “vehicles of the divine.”⁴⁴ For like Francis of Assisi, the Psalmist speaks to creation, and calls creation to praise the Lord:

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The Rev Monte Lee-Rice
CP Guest Columnist