“When scientists jubilantly announced last week that a telescope at the South Pole had detected ripples in space from the very beginning of time, the reverberations went far beyond the potential validation of astronomers’ most cherished model of the Big Bang.”*

 

The news of this detection peaked my curiosity. It got my attention not because I am a scientist, I am not, or because I understand much of the article Mr. Overby wrote, I really did try, it got my attention because of the monumental interesting topic that it is.

The beginning of time!

It is not supposed to get my attention, especially in a positive way, but it did. I am a pastor from a conservative, almost fundamental background, who is expected to walk hand in hand with young earth literal creationist. I should be rolling my eyes in disgust at this article. I am not. I should be critical, but instead I am intrigued. I am very blessed to be a pastor of a church who are patient with me and my excursions into the excitement of God and His creation.  Also, I must say that have no problem with those who hold to a literal view, I believe it is possible. However, I really believe that the creation account in scripture was given in order that we could gain a great deal more than a simple science lesson. I believe that the creation account holds the foundational truths that set us up for a full understanding of God. So, seeing ripples that may be from close to the start of it all, the start of the creation, is pretty cool.

What I would really love is a telescope that could show me the LET of creation.

“Let there be light” and there was light.

“Let the waters gather” and the waters gathered,

“Let there be vegetation” and there was vegetation,

“Let there be light” and there was light,

“Let the waters swarm with living creatures and the birds fly across the sky” and there were creatures swarming and birds flying across the sky,

“Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind” and there were all kinds of living creatures,

“Let Us create humankind in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish, birds, cattle, all kinds of animals, and over every creeping thing that creeps” and that is just what happened.**

I think I know what Let really is, it is the same as when my own kids were very young and they would yell “Let me go”. They wanted to see something exciting or do something even more exciting. I was the only thing holding them back and I was not about to let them go until it was right. When it was the right thing, the right place, the right time I would let them go. And they would go. They had been waiting for this moment and it was finally here, they were let go. They would spring forth with such excitement and joy that I could not wait until the next let.*** It is the same Let. They are both a work of letting go, halting the holding back, the restriction from activity. Restriction from creation. All the time before this glorious creation, God had been holding the creation back. Holding it back until just the right time, the perfect time. Creation was at the gate ready to roll just waiting on God to let loose of His grip. Finally the perfect time, the right time arrived. Finally God let it flow out of Him.

God Let Go.

And what a mighty and exhausting Let it was. Compared to the work of the creation that came from Him, the holding back must have seemed like a piece of cake. Letting go was exhausting. So much so that after He finished letting it go, He rested. He rested for a full day. I only do something that exhausting when it is something I love, for someone I love, because I am fully committed to the person I love and the action of let that is required of me. That was why God let creation go, He let it come forth. He fully loved the creation, He created for those He fully loved, and He was completely committed to the created.

While the first Old Testament phrase

In the beginning God

sets up an unarguable truth foundation for the remainder of God’s Word,

Let

gives us the needed foundational understanding of the character and nature of God. We immediately see the depth of God’s love for us by His exhausting first recorded actions for us.

LET

It is all the more amazing then that we miss this truth and even the truth that in the beginning there was God, already there, before creation.

INSTEAD

we argue over all the different ways that He Let. The strategies, the formulas, the blueprint for the how, while missing the all important what. We try to force our agenda about the creation on a world that has no understanding of the beginning, the Let, and therefore the Father, the coming Messiah and Holy Spirit. They miss it because they first did not get to meet the God who lovingly and passionately created a world that is all they know. They hear about young earth, literal days, and maybe even where the dinosaurs fit in, but they don’t first get to see God. The God they don’t know they are missing who loves them enough to exhaustingly let go for them.

They miss it because we have missed the focus, the point.

We argue over methods and theories. We attempt to force nonbelievers to teach and learn an unbelievable account that few scientist can even fathom instead of showing them this God that loves them enough to create, to let. We spend so much time on our agenda of how, that we miss God artistically and beautifully explaining why. I have heard many say that it is impossible to grasp and receive salvation if you don’t first ascribe to a certain theory of creation. Secondly I have heard it said that God does not care and love for His creation or the created. That it will ultimately burn so why spend the exhaustive effort to take care of it. The first thought I don’t understand, the second I find tragic.

Years ago, on an NPR interview, a renowned atheistic scientist said that his biggest complaint about Christians is that they diminish the majesty of the universe. He said, that we minimize how awesome the universe is in our attempts to shrink it down to a six day endeavor by a magical God. I didn’t catch the name of the scientist, nor evidently did any on at NPR who have repeatedly been unable to figure out who I am inquiring about. I did, however, catch what I think was his Holy Spirit inspired statement. We do miss the majesty of God’s magnificent work of LET when we insist it happened in such a simplistic manner. We miss the foundational signal of love and compassion that was core to His exhaustive work.

I wonder what it would do to our understanding, and even following of God, if we were to grasp the Let.

RAA

* Overbye, Dennis. “Ripples From the Big Bang.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2014 (pictures are from the article as well)

**Genesis, NRSV

***My wife birthed five kids in five and a half years, she is a saint. This was not our plan but we are very thankful for better plans. However, I must admit that the word joy at letting go of my toddlers’ hands is probably more of a ten year old memory lapse that has allowed me to forget the exhaustion of those moments. Interesting, in that way we did understand, at least a little bit, what God’s let really felt like.