“Art-Full Worship” (Exodus 31:1-11 and John 6:47-58)

“In the beginning, God created...” “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). And what a wonderful, resplendent, beautiful world God created.
From fish to flowers ...
From atoms to Alps ...
From galaxies to germs ...

Our God has created an infinitely complex world. From its smallest to largest dimensions, the beauty and complexity of our world staggers our minds and enraptures our hearts. Our God creates. Our God creates flowers that no one will ever see and stars that no one will ever reach. Our God creates bacteria and electrons and magnetic waves and thermonuclear reactions and sea currents and black holes and nebula and more species of animals than we have even discovered. Our God creates. Beauty and complexity, simplicity and profundity, majesty and glory ooze from God’s very Being. God is Creator, and creation bears God’s glory.

From the beginning of time, people have worshiped God through creation. Adam and Eve joined the creative process by naming the animals, caring for the garden, and creating more human beings. Noah joined the Creator’s mission by creating an ark as an instrument of salvation and then building an altar as a sign of worship. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all worshiped God by building altars to hold their sacrifices.
Creation and beauty have always been part of worship of the Creator. Worship has always been art-full (full of art). As people made like the Creator, we cannot help but to create when we express our worship of the Creator.