Embracing Joy: God's Song in Creation

is it God who loves new beginnings so take a deep breath a go of yesterday Embrace this day lift up your heart and let's find God right here right now I'm recording this at the beginning of the new day for a reason today all of us all of us in the Fellowship of the withered hand all of us who find some air in our life when we're not able to do or become what we most deeply want but we know that God can and we're trying to let him today we get the day off [00:00:33]

and so we pause to remember that the world existence life began in Great goodness and it will be consummated in great goodness I was reading this last week about the Big Bang what had happened that's quite amazing just try to imagine if you were there seeing the universe when it came into existence when the universe was one one hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a 20th of a second old it doubled in size 90 times in the space of that sliver of time far far far far too small to be even in imagine that you were looking at that what amazing thing that is [00:01:14]

but what we remember this morning is not just how that it happened but how good it is that it happened I don't know if you have ever just stopped to say thank you God that there is this universe thank you God that there is this beauty thank you God that there is life that there are birds singing right now um in in the Book of Genesis uh that first chapter a lot of writers will talk about this is essentially a kind of poetry you'll notice that each stanza begins and God said in the New International Version actually pulled those phrases out to help us to see that it's written in that way with a kind of a meter to it [00:02:44]

and they and and there was evening and there was morning the first day and the second day and then of course over and over again that little phrase God saw that it was good and then and then the song climaxes and it was very good and lots of folks the writer of job um J.R.R Tolkien Calvin Miller will write about God as a singer that God is singing creation into existence because there's so much Beauty to it and one of the best passages about this uh my pal Tim Williams was telling me is in C.S Lewis's book The Magician's Nephew the Narnia Chronicles [00:03:29]

and so I thought today I would read this it's kind of an extended version and you might just think now about what was God experiencing when he created and how good is it that there is a universe it's not an accident in that book several people from our world including two children get to witness the creation then of Nardi the idea is the creation of all things in the darkness something was happening at last a voice had begun to sing The Most Beautiful Noise he had ever heard so beautiful he could hardly bear it then two wonders happened at the same moment [00:04:12]

one was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices more voices than you could possibly count and they were in harmony with it the job it says that the morning Stars sang together when they were created but far higher up on the scale cold tingling silvery voices the second Wonder was that Blackness overhead all at once was Blazing with stars they didn't come out gently one by one as they do on a summer evening one moment there had been nothing but Darkness next moment a thousand thousand points of light leaped out if you had seen it and heard it you would have felt quite certain that it was the Stars themselves that were singing and it was the first voice the Deep one that had made them appear and made them sing [00:04:48]

the voice on the Earth was now louder and more triumphant but the voices in the sky after singing loudly with it for a Time began to get fainter far away down near the Horizon the sky began to turn gray a light wind very fresh began to stir the sky in that one place grew slowly and steadily paler you could see the shapes of Hills standing up dark against it all the time the voice went on singing the Eastern sky changed from white to Pink and from pink to gold and the voice Rose and Rose till all the air was shaking with it and just as it swelled to the mightiest and most glorious sound it had yet produced the sun arose [00:05:37]

the Earth was of Many Colors fresh hot Vivid they made you feel excited until you saw the singer himself and then you forgot everything else here was a lion and The Chronicles of Narnia it's the lion Aslan who expresses the lion of Judah Jesus huge Shaggy bride it stood in the Risen Sun its mouth was wide open in a song it's about 300 yards away and as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass it spread out from the lion like a pool it ran up the sides of the little Hills like a wave soon there were other things besides grass the slopes grew dark with Heather and when he burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primrose's suddenly appearing in every direction [00:06:24]

but now the song had changed once more it was more like what we would call a tune but it was also far Wilder it made you want to run and jump and climb Showers of birds came out of the trees butterflies fluttered bees got to work on the flowers as if they hadn't a second to lose and now you can hardly hear the song of the lion there was so much being barking lowing bleeding and trumpeting then there came a swift flash like a fire but it burnt nobody either from the sky or from the lion itself and every drop of blood tingled in the children's bodies and the deepest wildest voice they had ever heard was saying Narnia Narnia Narnia awake love think speak be walking trees be talking beasts be divine Waters [00:07:18]

what if God sings every morning sings the Sun up sings along with the birds sings the Stars into and out of the Skies sings over you it is good what science is unable to tell us the Bible cries out over and over and over good this moment is good for you to be alive is a very good thing this is from the Bible from the prophet Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17. here's the word for you today the Lord your God is with you the mighty warrior who saves he will take great Delight in you in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing [00:08:22]