Further Up with Tim Willard - Vol.1

Feature #2: Before the Beginning - God Tells Us the Story of the World

Dec 10, 2019

“The presence and love of the Word had called them into being …”
—St. Athanasius, The Incarnation of the Word of God

Welcome back to Further Up. I’m so glad you’ve joined me here in this space to reflect on the wonder, mystery and beauty of the Incarnation. In our last installment, we committed to looking along the event of the Incarnation. Instead of looking at it, we want to, in a way, get inside the whole story of God and Man.

Feel free to go back and reread the previous essay for a refresher.

Today’s essay takes an imaginative approach to help us understand why God created the world. We get to listen in on a conversation between a man, a woman, and God. The man and woman pepper God with questions about his love for them, and why he created the world in the first place.

If we want to understand the full weight of the Incarnation, I believe we need to go all the way back to the beginning. Interestingly, Athanasius used this same approach (not the imaginative retelling, but a recounting of Creation and the Fall) in his now-famous The Incarnation of the Word of God.

Please do find this short powerful book on Amazon or at the wonderful site, CCEL.

After you read the essay, be sure to check out the small group study questions and the suggested reading for next time.

On with the show.

One day, far into the future, God sat down with a woman and a man, who looked very much like you and me, and he told them the story of the world.

“What was it like, before,” the woman asked. “Before the light came, and the rivers, and the oceans, and the lands and the mountains and the trees covered the earth? What was it like before humans walked on the earth?”

We humans love to ask questions. We’re curious creatures. And God knows this, so he didn’t mind the inquiries. In fact, he loved being asked questions.

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“It was different,” God said. “Before the light, and all that you’ve mentioned, there was heaven. And there was nothing before heaven, and nothing after.”

“The light. Tell us about the light,” said the man.

“Before the light came to your eyes, it was a whisper,” said God. “It was the whisper after a thought—one of my most precious thoughts.”

“Why was it so precious?” the man asked.

“That won’t be easy to describe to you, but I’ll try,” said God. “It was precious because it was a thought that formed upon ringing notes of joy. And there was nothing like it ever before because the whisper-thought was about you. And I loved that thought. I loved you, even before there was a you. The light was for you, and everything after the light: the skies and mountains and rivers and sun and moon and each other. It was all part of the plan to create a place in which you’d thrive—a place you’d love, a place where we could be together.”

“I think I understand,” said the woman. “It is a little hard to think about being loved even before I existed. I’m not sure I can comprehend a love like that.”

“Yes, that’s why I said it will be difficult to explain in a way you can understand. But if you reach deep inside of your heart, you can gather the strength to comprehend all that I’m saying. I know, because I made you. But it will be hard.”

A Prayer Moment: Take a moment and ask God to give you the strength and insight to see his wonder, beauty, majesty and love.

“Lord, I know you love me, but sometimes it’s hard for me to fully understand. I fail so much and feel like I don’t measure up. Strengthen me with your Holy Spirit to grasp the depths of your love for me.”

The man and woman looked at each with a look that said, “Yes, please tell us, even if it’s difficult to understand.”

“It’s difficult to explain ‘before time’ to you,” continued God, “because you were born in the realm of time, nourished on light from the sun, and loved with whispers that came to you all the way from eternity. Ah, how can I, an infinite being, explain to you the inside of my heart and how deeply I loved you before time even began?” said God.

“I’d love to hear you explain what you mean by the ‘inside of your heart.’ I know you’re God, but sometimes I feel like I can’t relate to you because, well, you’re not a human being,” said the woman, hoping her question wasn’t taken the wrong way by God.

But God smiled, and nodded, and said, “Yes, I understand your confusion. My heart is not a heart like yours, beating red with life. I am not like you in that sense, but at the same time, I can connect to your heart in deep and profound ways.”

“But, how can you, an eternal being, connect to us—a creation of flesh and bone?” interjected the man, who looked uncomfortable with this whole line of discussion and still stuck in the confusion of how God can relate to humans.

Go smiled at the man, and continued his explanation.

“Yes, well,” said God, “I believe people sometimes forget that I am not an impersonal floating energy drifting out in the far reaches of space. I am not some lone, bored deity who needs something to do, like many of the deities mankind has made up. I am the Three-In-One God. My very nature is one of community and love. In fact, I am, myself, the fountainhead of Love. And when I create it is an expression of my nature, my eternal love. Think about how you feel when you love someone. Do you constantly think about them?”

“Yes,” said the woman.

“Do you desire to shower them with gifts?”

“Very much so,” said the man.

“Do you want to lavish them with the very best?”

The man and woman nodded in agreement.

“If that is true of you, my creation, how much more is it true of me, the fountainhead of Love—indeed, Love itself? I didn’t need something to love—my love is not dependent on some created thing. My love comes out from me because I can’t help it; it’s who I am. You see, before the beginning of your world, my Word went forth—my very special Son. It was through him that I created the world. And it was the Holy Spirit who gave creation the breath of life, who beautified the world you know and love.

“And so this world was quickened by my Son and Spirit, the agents of my Love. It was our intent for your world to reflect our Love, and for you to enjoy the fellowship of our Love. The natural world bursts with the bounty of beauty breathed on by my Spirit. And we set you apart from all the created world, gave you self-awareness, and the blessings of a rational mind and a kindled imagination—human tools used to enhance your relationship with the Divine.”

“My Word speaks through the beauty of creation, and also through your experience with it, and with one another. I placed eternity in your hearts, but how can something so vast be grasped by the finite? That is why you can sense me, but can’t always explain what you feel or experience.”

Eternity in Our Hearts

Let’s pause from this conversation for a moment and reflect.

Take a moment and consider the ways you and I struggle to describe the feelings of eternity inside of our hearts. Do you know those feelings?

We might feel them during certain moments in our lifetimes; it’s that sense that something or someone else is out there waiting for us, relating to us. It’s tempting to label those feelings or sensations with words or concepts we can understand because even though we love mystery and are naturally curious, we don’t like to feel unsafe or not in control.

But God does not fit into our simple categories. He is not like us. Indeed, he is utterly unique. Great thinkers from times passed used a Latin term to describe God’s uniqueness: sui generis (pronounced, swee-generis). It means, one of a kind. Other scholars refer to God as “Wholly Other,” which simply means that God is unlike anything in the natural world or our universe. Since he created all of it, he is outside of it. God is not a derivative being. He always was and will be. He is the First Cause of all that we see and know and experience in this world.

And yet, he is our Father and eternal lover and he loves when we seek him and do our utmost to know him more. Here’s what the Swiss Reformer John Calvin thought about pushing in to know the depth and riches of God’s love:

“We ought in the very order of things [in creation] diligently to contemplate God’s fatherly love … [for as] as foreseeing and diligent father of the family he shows his wonderful goodness toward us. … To conclude once for all, whenever we call God the Creator of heaven and earth, let us at the same time bear in mind that … we are indeed his children, whom he has received into his faithful protection to nourish an educate. … so, invited by the great sweetness of his beneficence and goodness, let us study to love and serve him with all our heart.”

He is our Forever Father, utterly unique and creator of all, yes, but also our “Father who art in heaven.”

Now let’s dip back in and try to catch the end of the conversation.

My Love is Like the Ocean

“How does your heart connect to ours?” the woman asked.

“Do you know when you experience something beautiful or fantastic in your world and you feel so deeply words escape you? My heart connects to yours in that space where words escape you because I am the space where your words disappear.

“I think I see what you’re getting at,” said the woman. “So, these feelings, like the terror I might feel when a thunderstorm approaches, or the excitement I feel when I hear the waves of the ocean crashing on the shore, work in me as reminders or even metaphors for you?

“I told you it would be hard to explain. But yes, there is so much in this world I created that communicates my heart for you. Do you know that feeling when you run into the waves of the ocean? You get knocked down but love it. The salt stings your eyes, but you can’t get enough. You wade out into deeper water and feel the gigantic pull, and you start to feel frightened that the ocean could, at any moment, consume you. That feeling you get from the ocean? Our hearts connect there. You cannot fathom the ocean’s strength, but something in you loves it for that very reason.”

Click for More on the Joy of Ocean Waves

“I know that feeling of being in the ocean,” said the man. “And I did love it. It was scary and wonderful at the same time.”

“That’s also how it is when you love someone,” said the woman. “It’s scary because you have to trust them, and wonderful because you can’t get enough of them. I think I’m getting a picture of how precious your thought of us really was.”

“I am like the ocean,” said God. “And from my depths, love comes with all the curling fury of storm-driven waves. Beneath such waves, nothing can live. But through the constant crashing of the waves, the shoreline emerges. Rocks beaten soft. Earth washed smooth. Air salted clean.”

“Is the whisper-thought the reason you created everything to begin with? To love, us?” said the man.

“Yes. I created for love. To send myself through to you and to give you the choice to love me back. Love requires choice, as you well know.”

“So, the story of the world starts with this whisper-thought of love for us?” the woman asked, getting caught up in the images of love and eternity.

“It does,” said God. “With the choice to love came the ocean feeling I just described. My heart for you screams out through the natural world with reminders of my bountiful love. But as with all choices, you can choose to reject what is offered. With the choice to reject love came the emptiness of despair. The despair came with the lie of the Serpent. My ocean-like love, from the shores of Heaven.”

“Can you tell us the story about what happened after your whisper-thought and how the Serpent brought despair?” the man asked.

“I can. But, unlike the stories you’re familiar with that begin once upon a time, this story starts before the beginning of time.”

And so, God told them the story of his eternal love for them, and how the Serpent tried to wreck the whole thing. This is what he told them …

TO BE CONTINUED.

The story of Christmas is cosmic. When we take the time to think about creation, and the heart of God and why he even created us, it widens our view of the Christmas story. And it reminds us that this babe wrapped in swaddling clothes wasn’t new to the scene of the world. He was there at the very beginning, he was God’s agent for creating the universe, he was literally, “God with us.” When you think of Christmas, do you think of Creation? Do you think about the everlasting and unchanging love of God for you and all of humanity? Why or why not?
It’s easy to forget that the Incarnation doesn’t begin at the nativity scene or even at the Fall of Man. It begins with God’s love for every person on the planet. It’s astounding to think about. How does starting with God’s love for the world change your perspective of the Christmas story? Do you struggle with viewing God as loving and as a result struggle with the story of Jesus coming to bring new life to the world? How can a more complete view of the story of Christmas improve your view of God’s love for you?
Spend a few minutes reflecting on this passage about the beginning of the universe from Athanasius. Note how he emphasizes God’s goodness as a major element of creation: “… because God is infinite, not finite, it [the universe] was not made from pre-existent matter, but out of nothing and out of non-existence absolute and utter God brought it into being through the Word. … ‘By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which we see now did not come into being out of things which had previously appeared.’ for God is good—or rather, of all goodness He is fountainhead, and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything.”
Try telling the story of the Incarnation to someone this week. It can be your aunt, uncle, or even your grandparents—but it would amazing if you could stop someone at the gas station or Costco or the mall and ask them if you can tell them the story. Where do you naturally begin telling the story? What changes could you make to the way you tell the story of Immanuel, God with us, a.k.a., the Incarnation.
Assigned reading for next time: Revelation 12.

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