When my son opened his presents on Christmas, what
question was he asking? When he looked
at his new toys, did he care about how they got made? No. The only question he wanted answered was
this. What do all these cool toys do? What’s
their purpose? How do I play with them?
And aren’t those the questions that really
matter? If I’m sick and a doctor gives
me a drug, I don’t really care about how the manufacturer put it together. I want to know? Will the drug make me better? Will it heal me?
The mechanics of how something got made may interest
you. But what really matters is why it
was made. What is its purpose? What is it designed to do?
And God gave the song you’re about to hear to answer
those questions, the questions that truly matter about you, about everything. Why
did everything get made? Why did you
get made? Why do you really exist? What is the purpose behind you, behind
everything?
In this song, God gives you the answer. So, let’s listen and hear what God has to
say.
For too long, people have been looking to the words
you just heard to answer questions God never intended these words to
answer. After all, no one writes
instruction manuals in poetry. And the
words are that. They are poetry. The repetition tells you that. And there was evening and there was morning,
the first day. That line repeats 5 more
times. Why?
That’s what songs do. They repeat.
“On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me.” You know that song? Do you realize that line repeats 12
times? Why? It’s because songs do that. They repeat things, words, phrases; choruses.
God has no interest in telling you anything here about
how the universe was created. God has
a far bigger agenda. God wants you to know why. God wants you to know what all this means,
what purpose it has, why you and everything were made.
The first clue to that answer comes into how this
creation happens. God speaks it into
existence. All God has to do is say the
words. “Let there be light.” And by saying it, it happens. The words themselves have the power to make
it real, to bring it into existence.
How can a word do that? How can a word actually create light, earth,
stars? The answer to that question
comes in another poem written thousands of years later in the Gospel of John. “In the beginning was the word, and the word
was with God, and the word was God. He
was with God in the beginning. Through
him, all things were made;…
How can the word create everything? Because the word is a person, a living
being.
But even before God speaks, God gives another clue. Genesis tells us the “Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters.” This word
hovering, in Hebrew, only ever describes one thing, a mother bird hovering over
her nest, fluttering her wings to keep her babies safe. When Genesis describes the Spirit, it is
talking not about some-thing, some entity. It is talking about a living being, a being
like a mother even.
The final clue comes, in a verse we didn’t read, verse
26. “Then God said, “Let us make human
beings in our image….” Who is God even
talking to? Some have said. Well, maybe God is talking to the
angels. But God didn’t create human
beings in the image of angels. God
created human beings in the image of God.
So who is God talking to? Who is us?
Us is God. Because God isn’t one. God is three.
God is three beings bound together forever in one loving communion. That’s why Christians describe God with three
words, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, why is that important?
Because when you know who God is, you know what the
purpose of everything is, why everything, including you were made.
Think about it this way. If everything just happened, then the
universe doesn’t really have any purpose at all. You don’t have any purpose. Now, you can create a purpose, but you’re
just making it up. Concepts like
justice and love really don’t mean much of anything. You can make them mean something, but that’s
just you making them significant for you. But they don’t really matter.
On the other hand, if a divine being did create
everything, but this God was one solitary being, all alone, then love didn’t
exist, relationship didn’t exist until this solitary being made the
universe. So the ultimate basis of
reality isn’t love. It’s power.
But if this God was always living in love, if out of
that love God created everything including you, then that makes relationship, that
makes love the ultimate basis of reality. It means. When God created the universe, God
was simply expanding a circle of love that had always existed. Love
lies behind everything, why you exist, why all of this exists. Like the
song says; love does make the world go round.
Look at how God describes everything God makes. You can feel the love. God says.
It is good. And God isn’t giving a Good Housekeeping sign
of approval. God isn’t placing one of
those little inspection tags you see when you buy a shirt, inspected by No.
13.
No, God is saying good the way I said it after I ate
way too much of the bread pudding my wife made from a Paula Deen recipe. Man, that was good. God is saying it like that. God is savoring his creation. God is enjoying its beauty, rejoicing in the
wonder of it all. And the Bible tells us creation rejoices right
back. Every moment of every day, creation
is singing, rejoicing in communion with this God who created it.
That’s why when you go to the ocean, when you hear
the roar of the waves, when you see that endless blue expanse you feel moved
and inspired. It’s why when you see any beauty
in nature, you can feel your heart leap.
You are sensing this song. You are catching a glimpse of the living love
song that sustains everything.
But you’re only catching a glimpse. Because, don’t you sense that too? Don’t you sense as much as nature inspires
you or fascinates you, that you are somehow locked out? You can’t really get in. No matter how much you try, you find yourself
on the outside. This is the tragic
news. You, I, every human being have
lost touch with the song. We have walked
away from it, and we can’t find our way back. The great 18th century preacher
George Whitefield put it this way. “Why
do the animals flee or growl when you approach?
They know. You have a quarrel with
their master.”
So this song goes on, but we have lost the tune. We have lost touch with the love that made us. How do you get back? How do you find your way back to the circle
of love for which you were made? How do
you find your way home?
You look to the love song that lies at the heart of
the cross. For, God, when you walked away,
reached out to rescue you. And in Jesus
this God came to you, and this gave gave up everything to bring you home. On that cross, Jesus lost the song so that
you might know it again. He became
utterly alone, so that you would never be alone ever. Jesus was unmade there, so he could remake
you into a new creation. Why did God do
this? Because, no matter how much you
turned away, how far you ran from the song, God never stopped loving you. And God joyfully, lovingly paid the ultimate
price to bring you back.
And the more you look to that love song,
this love poured out for you, the more Jesus will free you to live into this
love song all creation sings. And in
that song, your insecurities and anxieties fall more and more away. And your heart becomes more and more full and
your fear less and less. And you will
know more and more that love lies at the heart of everything that lies at the
heart of you. You will know this. You are loved. You are loved. Everything is loved. And
that will change everything now and forever.
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