Have you ever heard creation sing?
That may sound like an odd question to ask. It sounds like I’m trying to anthropomorphize the world. You know, speak of an inanimate object like it’s a human being. Poets do that sort of thing all the time when they’re trying to be fancy-schmancy.
Only I’ve never been all that poetic personally. But here’s the crazy thing: the Bible talks all the time about creation behaving in human ways.
For example, creation groans. Paul tells us this:
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
We’ve seen this groaning ourselves plenty of times. The world doesn’t work right because of sin. Anytime you see an outbreak of pain or suffering, the world is groaning. It longs for the day when it will be set free.
Thankfully, the days of its groaning is coming to an end, and that’s because the One who will fix the world has come.
The creation recognized this. When Jesus entered Jerusalem to die on the cross, Jesus said that if the crowd didn’t praise him, the very stones would. The stones recognized their creator and their liberator in Jesus Christ.
And because of His cross and empty tomb, the whole of creation reverberates with praise:
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and women,
old men and children.13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.
There’s plenty of room in the choir. Join the song of creation, because Jesus came to silence our groaning as well!