-Silencing The Stones-

For a little while now I've been putting a lot of thought and consideration into God's act of creation. And I don't just mean I've been pondering Adam and Eve's story. I've been wrestling and meditating and praying and studying and examining and really investing myself into the creation poem of Genesis. I think that there is so much in the first chapter of the bible that we either miss or simply ignore. As the poem unfolds you can feel that God is going somewhere with this whole creating the universe thing. He creates and creates and then creates things that can create. God saturates our universe with the ability to keep creating itself. To move itself from on level to the next. Because God isn't just creative, He is Creativity itself.

Finally, in His last act of creation, (that we know of), God forms man in His own image and plops us down smack-dab-in-the-middle of all this creative potential. He charges us with helping to continue in the creation of the world. To help bring order and balance and at the same time for humanity to grow and create and learn. It's like God says to man, "I made all this and it's GOOD. But I've given you the ability to take hold of it and make it even better." Now the question is: where do we fit in the grand scheme of creation?

Let's not kid ourselves, mankind is NOT the focal point of creation. I know many of us would like to believe that but it's simply not true. God did not create the universe for man. Why did He create then? Simple. For Him. Creation exists to bring glory to God. Everything that is good and right and true and beautiful in our universe has the singular purpose of crying out to it's Creator in gratitude, admiration and yes, even worship. That means that mankind, as God's most beloved and important creation, has the responsibility to do the same thing. To cry out to God in gratitude, admiration and yes, even worship. Because God is going to get His. But what happens when He doesn't get it from us?  Check this out:

"When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

(Luke 19:37-40 TNIV)

I wonder what that looks like. I wonder what it sounds like. What does it look like when the "stones cry out"? What would we hear? Would we see the molten spews of an erupting volcano? Would we hear the rumbling of an earthquake? Would stars fall from the sky? What does it look like when the "stones cry out"? I wonder if they aren't crying out already. If we have grown so proud and so "wise" that we simply don't stand in awe and terror and wonder and admiration of the Creator of all things. If we for got how to "cry out" in utter amazement of who and what and why He is. Maybe the stones are already crying out. Because God is going to get His. He is supposed to get it from us. But if we "keep quiet, the stones will cry out." And I think it's about time we start silencing the stones.