How humbling
is it for us, his created, to realise that there was nothing before God, there
is nothing after God. God is, always has been and always will be. The key
thought here is ‘being.’ God says I AM, (Exo 3:14) when He makes Himself known
to Moses, and here He confirms to us that He always has been.
John’s
declaration in Revelation 4:11 brings us to a life changing fact: “Worthy are
You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You
created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
First it is necessary to recognize that nothing exists that was not made by
God, (See John 1:3) which is a specific reference to Christ’s role) and
secondly that God has made Himself known to us in order for us to praise Him,
to worship Him, to see Him for who and what he is and to be humbled to tears of
joy by that self-disclosure.
Take a
moment after my second use of the word humble and turn to Isaiah 66, and read
verse 1. “Thus says the Lord, Heaven is My throne and the earth is my
footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place
that I may rest?” Here the prophet points beyond the physical temple building
which has been destroyed as Israel is exiled, to the dwelling place of God
which is being prepared in the hearts of those who come to Him in faith.
In Mark 13,
as Jesus is leaving the temple, one of His followers remarks on the beauty of
the building. A building that was made by man, not by God, and is in this
instance symbolic of that kind of ritualism and religion that had corrupted the
hearts of the Pharisees. The beauty of the man-made temple cannot hope to match
the beauty created by God Himself.
Jesus says “Is
it not written My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?”
For he is Lord of all the people, all those whom God has created, all those who
willingly turn to Him with hearts open for his Grace and that we become the
temple, we become the cathedral for that indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Some years
ago I went on a holiday to New Zealand. Two weeks on a bus taking in the sights
of the country where I was born. One of the options I had was to take a bush
walk. Three days in the South Island. They dropped us in by helicopter and we
were to walk out. The scenery was astonishing once we had done the hard slog up
5,000 feet of upward track. Against the first rule of hiking I had been left
behind by the guide and my fellow walkers. I wasn’t worried. I had a predefined
track to follow. Until I came out of the scrubby forest into the open.
Below me to
the left was a flat plateau, circled by snowcapped peaks. In front of me was a
fork in the track. From where I stood there was no sign of my supposed guide,
nor indeed my fellow walkers. I was faced with a Robert Frost moment. I took
the path to the right. And interesting choice given that I am left handed and
would normally opt left. (Which as it turns out is the way I should have gone.)
I walked up
a slow rise and found myself in a beech forest. It was a real change of tone to
the scrappy unkempt bush I had been walking through. The path was closed in by
trees. The light was tinged with that hint of green you get in deep forests.
The air was cold and still. It had snowed a little while before and there was a
dusting of white on the leaves of some of the undergrowth.
Without
being too concerned about being lost I set out down the track, enjoying the
stillness. And then I came to a lazy bend in the path, and as it straightened
there, not very far in front of me was a stag. He stood for several wonderful
second before turning and leaping into the protection of the trees, lost again
for me in the wood.1
When I think
on this the word I always have in my heart is majestic. And I think on Romans
1:20. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His
eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
What I was
standing in, I only realized many years later, was a natural cathedral. Not
because it was in any way shaped liked one, but because in that space, in that
moment at that time I was very much aware of the presence of God in His
creation. To know that God exists look around at His handy work, as I did on
the path that day all those years ago. And rejoice that He has created us in
order to love Him.
Amen.
1.
I never had a chance to get a photo. I had my
camera zipped into my jacket, and the moment I moved he was gone.