As C. S. Lewis, in "The Magician’s Nephew", has Aslan sing the world and all its beautiful intricacies into existence, so the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus, hymns the heavens and earth into being.
The Lord didn’t snap his almighty fingers to bring the world into being. He didn’t fire up the diesel engine on his celestial bulldozer to carve out the floor of the Atlantic and heap up the Rockies. Nor did he make a deal with angelic contractors to blueprint, found, and shape everything from ants to galaxies. He alone did it, and he did it by simply opening his mouth and speaking. And at his speaking it was done. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts,” (Ps 33:6). As C. S. Lewis, in The Magician’s Nephew, has Aslan sing the world and all its beautiful intricacies into existence, so the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus, hymns the heavens and earth into being.
In the beginning God created, and this Beginning is none other than his Word, his Son, our Savior and Lord. Jesus is the Genesis, the Alpha, the Beginning in whom and by whom the Father made the heavens and the earth. He is the strong Word that cleaves the darkness. He is God of God, Light of Light—the uncreated Light from whom all created lights beam and brighten our darkened world.
Jesus our Creator is Jesus our Redeemer. Two sides of the same coin. For God so loved the world that he created it by his Word. And by that same Word he recreated the world in a love that bleeds and cries and dies for you. From the cross forever beameth all his bright redeeming light. It breaks forth in conquering might, to shatter the darkness of our sin, to illumine our midnight hearts with the rays of Eastern dawn. On the cross and out of the tomb Genesis 1 happens all over again—better this time, as we are recreated by the very God who created us, and loved us to death and back.
Give us lips to sing Thy glory, throats to shout the hope that fills us. To Thee, our light-Creator, Light of Light begotten, and light-revealer, be Alleluias without end. For as you have made us, so you have more wondrously redeemed us in Jesus Christ.
*This reflection is part of a series of mediations on hymns that I presented at the "Day of Singing Boldly" at St. John Lutheran Church, Seward, Nebraska. It draws from the language of the hymn "Thy Strong Word" by Martin Franzmann.
