The beauty of creation

One of the books I've been reading on holiday is The Pleasures of God by John Piper. Today I came to a chapter called "The Pleasure of God in Creation." It was all about how God delights in the world he has made because it reflects something of his glory. Piper's words reminded me of this poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. It describes creation spoiled by human sin, but also God who still cares for this bent world and plans to restore it. It's not only the spiritual that matters:

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

I love the description "like sunshine from shook foil." For the record, I don't think that trade is inherently evil, part of the searing of creation, but Hopkins's broader sentiment is right on, especially "wears man's smudge and shares man's smell." This reminded me of Romans 8, where we read that "the creation was subjected to frustration." But that doesn't mean that God has written it off -- Christ sustains the world today (Hebrews 1:3) and the creation will ultimately "be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (Romans 8:21)

Staying on Lake Seneca these past two weeks has given me plenty of opportunities to reflect on the beauty of creation. This morning the lake was smooth as glass, clear and glittering in the sunlight. Now, as I type, there's a terrific thunderstorm raging. The lake is grey and covered in white-caps. Clouds are hiding the opposite bank, and the wind has whipped the trees over the back porch into a frenzy. Raindrops are tap-dancing on the skylights, highlighted by occasional flashes of lightning. The umbrella and lounge chairs on our dock have even blown into the lake! We'll have to fish them out later...

All this variety, all this beauty in a bent creation -- imagine what it will be like after the restoration!