How Great Thou Art!
The Wonder of (God’s Love in His) Creation

An opening prayer:

Loving Father, bless this time of gathering around your Word. Thank you for the gift of the Word, your Word of life and love. Open our hearts and minds to the wonder of your love in your amazing creation. My God, how great Thou art! Amen.

If you were to pick two Scripture verses that you think just about everybody in the room would be able to recite without opening their Bibles, what would they be? (Share your thoughts with the person next to you, and then maybe together as a group.)

The verses that come to my mind (if you haven’t already looked down the page) are Genesis 1:1 and John 3:16 (maybe Psalm 23:1 comes in third place).

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”

“For God so loved the world …”

God brought his creation into being in love. The totality of Scripture witnesses that God’s creating Word is saturated in love for his creation.

There are so many Scripture verses throughout the Bible that speak of God’s love, that emphatically affirm his steadfast love.

Read 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16

What is the simple and emphatic three-word equation that is common to these verses?

In light of this equation, how might we paraphrase Genesis 1:1?

John 3:16 again – what is the object of God’s creating (and recreating) loving?

John 3:16: What do you think is meant by “the world”? (Greek transliteration – “the cosmos”)

Did your discussion include the following meanings?

• universe, everything, all that has been created, the people of this world …
• the Greek word for cosmos is also used in the New Testament in the sense of “order” and “arrangement”. The created cosmos is God’s order and arrangement.
• the word is also related to 1 Peter 3:3,5 usage, where it refers to a woman’s “outer adornment” or as some translations put it: “make themselves beautiful”.

What might it then mean to say that God’s cosmos, his creation born of love, is his “adornment”? (Be a little creative in your thinking!)

What an amazing value this puts on God’s creation! In some way it reflects his beauty! As we look at so many aspects of creation, we can see it in some way as expressing the beauty of God, from the smallest microbe to the highest mountain, to the wonder of the human body and mind.

What does Genesis 1:31 tell us about this cosmos God created? And what does this mean?

When God said what he made was good, he was affirming its original design and intent: to reflect and display his character – which the apostle John sums up as “Love”. And in its original state, creation measured up to God’s standard – it was his perfect adornment. It was the way he wanted it to be! It could only reflect his character, power and his nature – because it could not not do that! (yes, a double negative) That which was created in Love was good – not just good, but very good.

Genesis chapter 3. We all know the tragic course of events recorded here.

Is God’s creation, his adornment, still good? What do you think?

Even after sin came into the world with its corrupting power, its distortion of God’s adornment, there is a very real sense in which the goodness of God’s creation remained. Sin distorts and twists and taints the goodness of creation, but it can’t make what God said untrue! Creation is still good in the hands of God, and it still serves the purpose (as blurred as it can be) of proclaiming his glory to the world!

What does this mean for our attitude toward and care for God’s adornment?

God’s people affirm the underlying goodness of God’s creation, his adornment (even though so twisted and tainted by our sin and our brokenness – not God’s!). And so we seek to care for it, to preserve it, even as it groans for its final restoration when Jesus comes to make all things new.

A much-loved hymn – “Love Divine, all loves excelling”

Who can remember the very last line of the hymn?

Somehow wonder, love and praise all come together as we say: “My God how Great Thou art!” Somehow, our wonder, love and praise is the only fitting response to this Love!

Read John 1:1–4

What does John tell us underlies all creation?

What does verse 14 tell us?

The Eternal Word spoke/Love spoke, and through him all things were made. But love also remakes his broken creation. He personally invests himself in his creation. “Love Divine, all loves excelling”.

What is the second line of this hymn?

The overwhelming truth that keeps coming to us through God’s Word is that God invested himself in his loved creation – he invested Love (capital L). His creation is not just a hobby or sideline – he continues to invest himself in Love in his creation, his adornment. My God, how great Thou ART! – “Lost in wonder, love and praise”.

Read Isaiah 40:12–14

What do these verses communicate about God?

Now read Isaiah 40:11 (the preceding verse)

What strikes you? (Bearing in mind vv12–14)

Verse 11 “… He carries each one close to his heart;”

In the vastness and wonder of God’s creating love, how does that make you feel?

“For God so loved … me … that he gave his only Son …” MY GOD, HOW GREAT THOU ART!

God’s love enables and empowers us to love his creation – animate and inanimate – and to seek to care for it, and for one another, even in our brokenness, even as we and all creation groan for a final restoration, when Jesus returns to make all things new (Revelation 21:5).

So meanwhile, in this world as God’s people, we are caught up in “wonder, love and praise”. Drawing us into God’s work of love, his renewing and restoring work in this world and in our lives!

In closing you may like to sing or pray “Love Divine, all loves excelling” (LHS 164).

Or watch together the YouTube song, “So Will I” (Songwriters: Benjamin Hastings/Joel Houston/Michael Fatkin So Will I (100 Billion X) lyrics © O/B/O Apra Amcos)

---