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This acrostic was written for the World Day of Prayer a few years back, when the theme was All God’s Creation is Very Good (Genesis 1:31)
Cosmos called out of infinite dark,
Restless void roused by wisdom’s spark
Emergent shapes formed in deepest night
A piercing voice summoned primal light
The sun and moon obeyed its command
Infinite life teemed through water and land
On ground that had been mere dust, Adam stood.
Now, for a time, all was very good.
At the start, creation is described as being ‘very good’. Then comes the fall. Christians sometimes think that the fallen world is not very good. It is corrupt and heading for destruction. It is not our permanent home; it’s just a place we are passing through.
But, whilst the world is not perfect, it is still very good. Despite our fallen nature, we are still ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. Despite pollution and misuse, our planet is still awe-inspiring. It is a place that is still wonderfully loved (‘For God so loved the world…’).
We should not think of the world and humanity as a ‘write-off’, and just focus on our personal salvation. Christians are for the here-and-now, not only the hereafter. Creation is very good. We are to cherish it. We are here to infuse it with kingdom values, we are to be the salt that stops its decay, we are to be its light in the darkness.
At times, we can react against the terrible things happening on earth by becoming excessively focused on the glory of the next world. We need to remind ourselves of the importance of a practical day-to-day engagement with the goodness of creation.
(The Creation acrostic appears on my Old Testament: History, Law and Poetry page).
Faith Acrostics 