The Wisdom of the Creator God

‘When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground ’
Psalm 104:30

On the second Sunday before Lent (19 February this year), the Scripture readings in church are traditionally about the creation. This year they include several direct or indirect references to the role of 'Wisdom', or 'the Word', or Jesus the Son of God, in that magnificent process (see the readings from Proverbs, Colossians and John, as well as the set psalm, from which the words above are taken). That God is the source of everything that exists is the most fundamental thing that a human being can know, because it changes and challenges the very way we think of ourselves, our destiny and purpose, and the environment in which we live. The universe is not the product of chance or the sheer passage of time, but because in wisdom our Creator-God willed it to be. It, and we, are not accidents!
That profound faith statement determines the nature of our relationship with God. Because he made us, he has rights over us, yet the Bible makes it clear that we are more, much more, than simply objects brought into being for his pleasure or gratification. In Psalm 100 the writer speaks of God as our Creator ('it is he who has made us') in the same sentence as he says that we are the 'sheep of his pasture' (v.3). Our Creator is also our Shepherd, the one who cares for us and on whom we constantly depend.

This year's readings, however, concentrate on the wisdom of the Creator.  Over against the utter complexity of the creation, a complexity that sometimes blows our minds or even threatens our faith, we can place the infinite wisdom that lies behind it all. For the believer, the universe is not purposeless or random, but speaks of the wisdom, order and beauty of its Creator. It may seem bewildering, vast, overwhelming to us, but to the one who brought it into being and constantly renews it, the creation itself 'echoes the silent music of his praise' (as our liturgy so beautifully puts it). The greater the creation, the greater its Creator!