We've seen how God formed the world (days 1, 2 and 3) and now we see God will the world (days 4, 5 and 6). Like the first three days 'God said' and it happened, and God said that it was good. The order of the filling mirrors the order of the forming: (I tried to do arrows but they didn't want to work!)
CHAOS
| ||
GOD FORMED
| ||
Day 1: Light & dark
|
Day 2: Water & sky
|
Day 3: Land & sea
|
GOD FILLED
| ||
Day 4: Sun, moon & stars
|
Day 5: Fish & birds
|
Day 6: Living creatures
|
As I said yesterday the sun, moon and stars have no special powers - they merely mark time and give light. This is why we could have 'evening and morning' without them. It also explains why we shouldn't worship them and follow a horoscope. We could even use this as a gospel opportunity and say 'I don't follow the stars; I follow the creator of the stars!' (How cheesy is that?!)
The Magician's Nephew goes on in describing the creation of Narnia:
You could imagine that it [the sun] laughed for joy as it came up. And as its beams shot across the land the travellers could see for the first time what sort of place they were in. It was a valley through which a broad, swift river wound its way, flowing eastward toward the sun. Southward there were mountains, northward there were lower hills. But it was a valley of mere earth, rock and water; there was not a tree, not a bush, not a blade of grass to be seen. The earth was of many colours: they were fresh, hot and vivid. They made you feel excited; until you saw the Singer himself, and then you forgot everything else. It was a Lion. Huge, shaggy, and bright, it stood facing the risen sun. Its mouth was open in song and it was about three hundred yards away...
The Lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song. It was softer and more lilting than the song by which he had called up the stars and the sun; a gentle, rippling music. And as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool. It ran up the sides of the little hills like a wave. In a few minutes it was creeping up the lower slopes of the distant mountains, making that young world every moment softer. The light wind could now be heard ruffling the grass. Soon there were other things beside grass. The higher slopes grew dark with heather. Patches of rougher and more bristling green appeared in the valley... It was a little, spiky thing that threw out dozens of arms and covered these arms with green and grew larger at the rate of about an inch every two seconds. There was dozens of these things all round him [Digory] now. When they were nearly as tall as himself he saw what they were. 'Trees!' he exclaimed.
There was certainly plenty to watch and listen to. The tree which Digory had noticed first was now a full-grown beech whose branches swayed gently above his head. They stood on cool, green grass, sprinkled with daisies and buttercups. A little way off, along the river bank, willows were growing. On the other side tangles of flowering currant, lilac, wild rose, and rhododendron closed them in.
All this time the Lion's song, and his stately prowl, to and fro, backwards and forwards, was going on... Polly was finding the song more and more interesting because she thought she was beginning to see the connexion between the music and the things that were happening. When a line of dark firs sprang up on a ridge about a hundred yards away she felt that they were connected with a series of deep, prolonged notes which the Lion had sung a second before. And when he burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primroses suddenly appearing in every direction. Thus, with an unspeakable thrill, she felt quite certain that all the things were coming (as she said) 'out of the Lion's head'.
I'll leave the creation of the animals for another day!
No comments:
Post a Comment