Thursday, August 15, 2013

EMMDEV 2013-08-15 [In the beginning...] Diversity

And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind...
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Genesis1:20-24

The well-loved welsh preacher, Granville Morgan, (who was Brenda's minister) once preached a sermon on God's favourite word.
What would you guess is His favourite word?
Is it "love"? Is it "grace"? Or is it "forgiveness"?
Granville argued that God's favourite word is "and".

God created all the creatures that the waters _teem_ with AND He created every winged bird according to its kind AND He created all the creatures of the land: livestock AND creatures that creep on the ground AND wild animals each according to their kind.

Think about it:
God created red AND blue AND yellow AND green AND pink AND ...
Our new HDMI television monitors can display 281.5 trillion colors - and yet if God only gave us two colours we'd be none the wiser - and 281.5 trillion colours still aren't enough to show a sunrise the way our eyes can see it.

God created whales AND dolphins AND jellyfish AND clownfish AND tuna AND sardines AND ...
God created swallows AND vultures AND ostriches AND parrots AND budgies AND ducks AND duck-billed-platypus AND ...
God created elephants AND kangeroos AND giraffes AND ants AND lions AND springbuck AND ...

The sheer diversity and creativity revealed in creation bears wonderful testimony to God's power, creativity and sense of humour (just look at the aardvark, the clownfish and the dung-beetle) It reveals His richness and awesome depth. Biologists are still discovering new species, astronomers are finding new stars and galaxies, and physicists are still discovering amazing truths in the quantum mechanics that govern our universe. We will never get to the end of what He can do!

So with the hymnwriter we must sing:
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/