Daily Bread

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice,

‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honour and glory and blessing!’

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might
for ever and ever!’

And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshipped.

The Book of Revelation or the Revelation of John is a wonderful book written in an ancient 'apocalyptic' style of writing. It's full of imagery and symbolism that many scholars and pastors over the years have tried to decipher. What we do know is that it was written in the context of a persecuted church — a church that looked forward to that day when everything would be okay, when heaven and earth would finally, fully overlap, their enemies would be defeated, and God — through Jesus — would wipe away every tear from their eyes.

The Book of Revelation draws on a rich history of Jewish metaphors, for example, Jesus being depicted as a lamb, but in this little reflection I would like to focus on us and creation and how we bring worship or 'worth'-ship to God.

There is this sense that all creation, by its very existence, sings praise to God. We, as human beings, are able to use our voices to articulate words of praise, and we can literally say, "Praise be to God!" but in the same way, the rest of creation, though it is unable to express itself in words, is able to give praise to God — from the splendour of the universe to the miracle of the smallest atomic particle — simply by existing.

When we stop to marvel at the world, we can get a sense of this unspoken worship. Perhaps it is when watching a sunset, or looking at the intricacies in a leaf pattern, or the rolling waves of the sea, or at life through the lens of a microscope — whenever we look at creation we can hear its voice singing loud and clear, "Our God is an awesome God!"

Holy God
As all creation sings your praise,
may I join in with the eternal song of heaven,
and lift my voice to express just
how awesome and wonderful you are.
May all honour, and blessing, and honour
be yours, now and forever.