Joy At The Beginning
Joy at the Beginning: Creation as Holy Play
On this beautiful fall day, surrounded by brilliant-colored leaves and the celebration of God's good creation, we have a rather wonderful guide.
Her name is Lady Wisdom.
We meet her in the Book of Proverbs, and her message is wonderfully radical.
She tells us that at the very heart of the universe is not just hard labor, but something else entirely.
Holy play. Untamed joy. Deep delight.
What a beautiful picture.
Before the Beginning
If you can, imagine going back to the time before time began.
Think about Genesis 1.
The Spirit is hovering over the deep.
And then move over to Proverbs 8, where we meet Lady Wisdom.
Wisdom says:
"The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works. Before his deeds of old, I was formed long ages ago. At the very beginning when the world came to be, when there were no watery depths, I was given birth."
Wisdom was there at the beginning.
When the Spirit was hovering over the deep, thinking and imagining and dreaming, Wisdom was there.
And woven into the very DNA of the cosmos is God's rationality, beauty, order, and goodness.
That's a remarkable way to imagine the beginning of everything.
Not simply a universe that exists, but one shaped by wisdom, beauty, and goodness from its very beginning.
Wisdom at Play
Lady Wisdom goes on to describe her role in creation.
In Proverbs 8:30, she says:
"Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world, and delighting in mankind."
There's a Hebrew word connected to this picture that the sermon describes as sah-hak—a word associated with playing and frolicking.
Imagine that.
Wisdom beside God at creation.
Playing.
Like an artist, delighting in the work of creating.
We sometimes imagine creation as an enormous task, something that must have required serious, difficult labor.
But this picture suggests something very different.
"Creation was not grim, stressful work for God. It was an active, exuberant, joyful recreation."
What if creation was joyful from the beginning?
Why Did God Make an Otter?
Think about some of the creatures in this world.
Why did God make a peacock?
Or an otter that slides down muddy banks?
Or a whale far out in the ocean, splashing in the water where no human being is even there to see it?
What a wonderful question.
Why would God make something so beautiful, so playful, so extravagant, even when nobody is watching?
The picture Proverbs gives us is one of Wisdom at play.
Creation is an overflow of divine joy.
"It's God's playground of love."
Maybe we've become so accustomed to the world around us that we've forgotten how wonderfully playful it can be.
The colors of a peacock.
The movement of an otter.
The enormous splash of a whale.
All of it inviting us to imagine a Creator who delights.
Like Children on a Beach
Picture children playing on a sandy beach on a beautiful summer day.
They're digging in the sand.
Building roads and castles and moats.
Creating entire worlds.
They're splashing in the water, imagining, building, playing, and enjoying.
Now imagine God at creation in that same spirit.
The Spirit hovering over the deep.
Wisdom alongside.
Playing.
Delighting.
Enjoying.
It's such a different way of thinking about the world.
Not as something made reluctantly or merely out of obligation.
But as something made with joy.
More Than a Problem to Solve
Sometimes, especially in Christian conversations about caring for creation, we begin with all the things that are wrong.
Climate change.
Ecological concerns.
Carbon footprints.
Melting glaciers.
Conservation laws.
And those concerns matter.
Caring for the world is good and necessary work.
But sometimes, when that's where we begin, we find ourselves feeling anxious, fearful, or frustrated.
We start thinking about creation primarily as a problem that needs to be solved.
Yet Scripture invites us to begin somewhere else.
With goodness.
With wonder.
With delight.
"The Holy Scriptures invite us to see creation as good, not a problem to solve."
Creation is God's creative poem.
A joyful dance.
A poetic masterpiece.
And perhaps our responsibility to care for it can grow from our love for it.
Not simply from fear about what might happen.
But from gratitude for what God has made.
Wisdom Was There Then. It Can Be Here Now.
Wisdom was present at the beginning.
And Wisdom can be present with us today, too.
So perhaps there's a simple invitation for this week.
Go outside.
Look at the sky.
Notice the fall leaves, if they're changing where you live.
Feel the soil.
Look at the colors and shapes and movement of the world around you.
Allow yourself to enjoy it.
Allow yourself to be delighted.
And remember:
You are deeply loved by the God who spoke all of this into existence.
The same God whose creation overflows with beauty, goodness, and joy invites us to participate in caring for this beautiful world.
We can partner in wisdom with the God of creation.
Not merely because the world needs our responsibility, though it does.
But because this is a world God dearly loves.
And perhaps the more we learn to delight in it, the more we will want to care for it.
May we rediscover the holy play woven into creation.
May we become people who notice its beauty.
And may we join the God of creation in loving this beautiful world.
