A Magnificent Theater

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hands are the depths of the earth; and the heights of the mountains are his also. Psalm 95:3-4

We trained from Lausanne yesterday into the Bernese Alps and made our way to the small car free village of Wengen. The late afternoon beauty of the heights above and the valley below was magnificent. Honestly, the grandeur is difficult to absorb. Though without a tongue, the scenery is an eloquent herald of God’s glory; it silently, but effectively, testifies to the reality beyond itself—the living God.[1]

Calvin frequently explained that creation functions as a mirror in which the invisible God makes himself, so to speak, visible. This means that the creation is a sign that directs us beyond itself. And so, the creation is to be enjoyed and delighted in, but this joy and delight is to deliver us to its Author through meditation on his works in it. Otherwise, we are poorly relating to this magnificent theater that surrounds us.

In Institutes I.14.20, Calvin captures this point:

Meanwhile let us not be ashamed to take pious delight in the works of God open and manifest in this most beautiful theater. For, as I have elsewhere said, although it is not the chief evidence for faith, yet it is the first evidence in the order of nature, to be mindful that wherever we cast our eyes, all things they meet are works of God, and at the same time to ponder with pious meditation to what end God created them.[2]

In the next paragraph, he proceeds to stress the importance of taking pious delight through meditation. He writes:

There is no doubt that the Lord would have us uninterruptedly occupied in this holy meditation; that, while we contemplate in all creatures, as in mirrors, those immense riches of his wisdom, justice, goodness, and power, we should not merely run over them cursorily, and, so to speak, with a fleeting glance; but we should ponder them at length, turn them over in our minds seriously and faithfully, and recollect them repeatedly.[3]

And so, let the world around us be a school that instructs us by leading us to meditate on God who made all these things to lead us to himself.

[1] Commentary on Genesis, Argument, CTS 1:24.

[2] Institutes I.14.20.

[3] Institutes I.14.21.