An Unseen Gentian

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago, “He is a creating and sharing God”. (11 October) http://colinhawkersother.blogspot.com/2011/10/he-is-creating-and-sharing-god.html

I put forward the idea that God is a creating God. He created all things, including Time, the Universe and everything in it. God created all this as a backdrop or context to Man’s existence. But I also suggested that God could have created and enjoyed the Universe, without it having to serve as a stage for Man’s existence. God can create and enjoy this creation without having any further purpose than the act of creation itself.

Having said all that, both alternatives are completely sensible. My personal starting point originally, was that that the Universe has no purpose in God’s eyes other than to be the context in which His relationship with Man is played out. The Bible is silent on this subject, or at least could probably be used to argue either view.

I had to think hard on whether God enjoys his creation for its own sake. I know the Creation for God was a trivial matter, but it still seems to me to be pretty marvellous.

In June 2003, my Hazel and I, being inexperienced hikers walked over the Julier Pass (2,300 metres / 7,500 feet). The temperature in the valley was 30 degrees, but unknown to us, the pass was still covered in deep snow. We kept going and are still here to tell the story. At the top, was part of a rock, peeking through the snow, with perhaps no more than a few square feet showing.

People generally admire the resilience of nature, but it can still be truly awesome to see something totally unexpected and out of place. In this square metre piece of rock, was a tiny gentian (a small lovely delicate deep blue flower).

But what is the point of this, you ask. It was completely possible that we were the only people to pass this point during that day, and the only people to see the Gentian. The Gentian was a beautiful work of God, and I guess, at that moment, created only for my benefit and that of Hazel. (I tend to be the one who says “Oh look at that pretty flower. Isn’t it amazing? Whatever is it doing here?” and “How long do you think it will survive?” and it is Hazel who knows that it is a Gentian).

Suppose for a moment, that we had not passed by. There would have been no one to enjoy it. I expect that there were thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Gentians blooming, at that moment, with no one to enjoy them (quite sad, really isn’t it).

I am indebted to my friend Richard Reincke for reminding me of the famous poem by Bishop Berkeley, about the tree existing at all times, as God was always there to see it. In the case of the Julier Pass, God would be the only person to see and enjoy all the gentians blossoming on the mountain top. I am prepared to stick my head out here, and assert that God does enjoy his gentians and other parts of Creation that are never seen, and which must make up 99.9999% of creation. Stars and Star systems are born and die, with no one to see them, except God himself.

God would have good reason to enjoy his own creation. It is pretty impressive.