As a culture we understand promotion and branding. We live in a digital age; we see thousands of images and hear thousands of sound bites each day. We can watch the Olympics and see Nike shoes, Oakley glasses, Spaulding balls, Speedo suits, and so forth. Everything is labeled.
Furthermore when we watch TV or read magazines we are inundated with commercials or advertisements that promote a company or their products. When you see the iPod logo you want to hear your favorite song, or the Nike swoosh you think of athletics, or perhaps the shamrock you think of the best basketball franchise in the world. We understand promotion and branding.
Well, so does God. In fact, everything that has been created by God is intended to promote the greatness of God. All created things are divinely inscribed with indelible, uninterrupted commercials of Christ’s greatness.
Listen to Psalm 19:
Psalm 19:1-2 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.
This text teaches us that all of creation is embedded with a God-centered sermon. The word translated “telling” here has the idea of ‘inscribing’ or ‘recounting’. The force is of an ongoing action.
This led Robert Reymond in his Systematic Theology to write, “The heavens and the sheer vastness of space are eagerly and continually ‘writing out’ without the use of words the glory of God, that is, the inescapable weight of the sheer ‘Godness’ of God” (p. 397)
We do have a tendency to forget the comprehensive sovereignty and beauty of God displayed in his creation. Our foggy vision short arms our praise and can lead to an unbiblical, even a pagan, worldview.
The Glory of Jesus Christ is the primary reason for the existence of all things (Col. 1.16-17), from the drop of dew on a blade of grass, to pull of gravity, to the intricate designs of flowers, to the function and motivation of insects and ants, to molecules, to the breath that is currently in your nostrils, all things are divinely trademarked “Soli Deo Gloria” the glory of God alone.
I think of all those people who see Jesus in a tortilla, the ingraining of their doors, or in a design on their front lawn. These folks seem like they are out there because the image they see is of a 35 year old guy that looks like he is from Europe. However, the principle of ubiquitous Jesus sightings is not unbiblical! But instead of seeing a picture of a hand-drawn man in my sandwich I should see the creative glory of Jesus everywhere! We should see the glory of Jesus in everything; not the image of man, but as the Lord over creation!!
So wake up in the morning and see the heavens in mid sentence of its sermon on the glory of God, the birds who are singing “How Great Thou Art”, your heart that is beating and proclaiming, “the Lord changeth not, and he is altogether powerful”. And then sing together with creation, making much of our great and glorious God.