Bountiful Gifts

Wonderful words from Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves:

“The very nature of the Triune God is to be effusive (expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner), ebullient (cheerful and full of energy), and bountiful; the Father rejoices to have another beside Him, and He finds His very self in pouring out His love.  Creation is about the spreading, the diffusion, the outward explosion of that love…."

 

“He is then, the source of all that is good, and that means He is not the sort of God who would call people to Himself away from happiness in good things.  Goodness and happiness are to be found with Him, not apart from Him…

“And the bountiful nature of the triune Creator makes all the difference in how we view the creation…as it is, there is something gratuitous about creation, an unnecessary abundance of beauty, and through its blossoms ad pleasures we can revel in the sheer largesse of the Father.  In fact, said CS Lewis, even if our views of God prevent us from doing so, this is just what the animals do.  Writing to his friend Owen Barfield shortly after WWII, he remarked, “Talking of beast and birds, have you ever noticed this contrast: that when you read a scientific account of any animal’s life you get an impression of laborious, incessant, almost rational economic activity….but when you study any animal you know—what at once strikes you is their cheerful fatuity, the pointlessness of nearly everything they do.  Say what you like, Barfield, the world is sillier and better fun than they make out.”

 

“It makes all the difference:  is this world a desert of mere, grim survival—a workhouse for the gods—or is it the gift of the most kind and generous Father?

“And not only is God’s joyful, abundant, spreading goodness the very reason for creation; the love and goodness of the triune God is the source of all love and goodness.  John Owen wrote that the Father’s love for the Son is the fountain and prototype of all love….and all love in the creation was introduced from this fountain, to give a shadow and resemblance of it.  Indeed, in the triune God is the love behind all love, the life behind all life, the music behind all music, the beauty behind all beauty and the joy behind all joy.  In other words, in the triune God is a God we can heartily enjoy—and enjoy in and through His creation."

All photos I took in Alaska, from Seward to Denali--what a place to experience God's creative mind!

Sapphire Blue and Thundering Voice, Our Peace

Every detail of every boat in the harbor is doubled perfectly upside-down in mirror-blue water.  The sun rises too bright up from the depths of the harbor, repeated in the blue sky so brightly one cannot look near it.  Now the snow iced mountains draw boundaries on all sides, close in and across the salty expanse into the distance, receding shades of blue on blue where the water meets.

Just an hour ago, rain tapped on the deck outside my hotel window—gray blurred the landscape closing in with mist, and the dull staccato of rain mixing with rap music being played somewhere down in the marina oppressed.

Blue expanses.  Light in the depths.  We can see so much more when we are in the Light.  Mysteries, all around us.

“…and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.”  Exodus 4:10

“And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire.”  Ezekiel 1:26

We learned in our glacier sightings this week, that the glaciers appear blue to us because all the other colors are absorbed into this densely packed ice of hundreds of years.  Only the blue refracts.  Why only blue?  Why is God’s throne blue like sapphire?  Just as the endless expanse of the sky, the depths of the ocean under light, so the impenetrable yet powerfully fragile crevasses of a glacier that resounds very much like thunder when pieces the size of a many-storied building break off into icy water.

“The voice of the Lord is over the waters;   the God of glory thunders,  the Lord, over many waters.   The voice of the Lord is powerful;  the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”  Psalm 29:3

“At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place.  Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.  Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and His lightning to the corner of the earth.  After it his voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is heard.  God thunders wondrously with his voice; He does great things that we cannot comprehend.  For to the snow he says, “Fall on the earth”…By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast… Job 37:1-6,10

The footnote says that Elihu’s graphic description of God’s majesty displayed in the forces of nature is somewhat like the first speech by God in chapter 38—meaning that Elihu speaks in a manner after His Creator.  Do we?  Elihu goes on to speak of God’s relational character with his people:  “The Almighty—we cannot find him; He is great in power;  justice and abundant righteousness He will not violate. Therefore men fear Him; He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”  (23-24)

And sure enough, God answers Job by telling him to consider His creation and what it reflects of His character; to be comforted and filled by this, not having received an answer to the why of his suffering.

Our son called yesterday from Indonesia.  It was the middle of the night, and he was on a boat, nine hours around an island.  While he was telling us all the guy stuff of his experiences so far, he would interrupt every now and then to say that lightning was flashing in the distance; or that the stars were incredible, spangling the sky; or that glowing flying fish were passing the boat.  Raw exposure to the wonders of God, out in the middle of the ocean across the world.  He was in awe at the beauty of it, curiously mingled with the everyday realities of too-spicy food and a headache. 

“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.  This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not ourselves.”  II Cor. 4:7

And so we too are quieted in the midst of our storms when we recognize the overpowering majesty and beauty intrinsic in the Person of our God.

And we are energized in the dailyness of our responsibilities by heeding and having eyes to see the overpowering majesty and beauty intrinsic in the Person of our God.