God's Grandeur On Display
I often think of natural law when I read Psalm 19. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” David wrote. The fact that the universe has a particular order in it points toward the mind that created it. But even on the surface there is much more at play in that lovely Hebrew poem.
The heavens declare the glory of the God because they remind us both of the transcendence and immanence of the Creator. The stars are transcendent—even the ancients knew they were very distant, not hung in a sphere above the earth. Yet the stars are also immanent—we see them, their light is beautiful, and they can guide us when we’re lost.
As Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” And he’s right.
That’s the premise of Andrew Wilson’s book, God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World.
Like a Cathedral
Last week I took my kids to a concert that was held at a PCA church in the city. That congregation had purchased a Roman Catholic church filled with marble, painted plaster murals, and statuary. Among the scenes of saints (some biblical, some not) there were dozens of reminders in the building of the stories of Scripture.
My son paced out the sanctuary, which was 39 paced long and 27 paces wide. This is a physical reminder of the number of books in the Old and New Testament.
There were symbols representing the Trinity, of the Decalogue, and various miracles from Scripture. In one sense, the building itself is a sermon to those who enter.
This world is something like that, as Andrew Wilson shows in God of All Things. Each chapter highlights an aspect of God’s creation that is mentioned in Scripture and shows how it functions to point us toward God. Dust, honey, rainbow, the sun, flowers, fruit, and light are regular types in the Bible that teach us something about who God is and what he has done for us.
Two Levels
The book functions on two levels. First, it helps inform the reader of some of the symbols within the pages of Scripture. Though the sea does not always function as a sign of judgment, it often does. Looking across the canon of Scripture at the ways the Holy Spirit uses references to the sea gives us a better view of the consistency of that type.
Second, as we think about an image like bread, we are reminded of how God’s provision for his people was made evident to them through that simple substance. Therefore, when we encounter bread—whether it be in our regular practice of the Lord’s Supper or as we make our sandwiches before work in the morning—we, too, can be reminded of God’s provision for us. When we hear of or experience an earthquake, we can be reminded of God’s great power and the way that his power displaces the physical world so often when he enters in.
God of All Things thus deepens our experience of the world as we study and live. Its short chapters and engaging prose are suitable for a wide audience. The many connections with real, physical object lessons have deepened my appreciation of God’s efforts to ensure that the message of his greatness is available for all. Everything that exists is a reminder of God’s grace, because he’s the God of all things.
Reading your Bible is a battle. There’s a reason why Paul lists Scripture as the sword of the Spirit in his discussion of the armor of God (Eph. 6:17). More even than that, Scripture reveals God’s character and is, thus, central to worshiping well (Psalm 119). That’s why reading the Bible is a battle.