As the creator of all things, God has sovereignly determined the meaning and purpose of everything he has made. So when he uses a creature to illustrate a particular truth about himself, that creature was designed for the purpose of that revelation. And although the earth existed before Moses wrote the Pentatuch, it was made according to the words he recorded at the inspiration of God the Spirit, who initiated the decree of God the Father through the active voice of God the Son. In a very real sense, then, Moses’ words predate the physical world that he wrote about because God’s word always precedes and defines his action. Certainly it was no surprise to God when Moses described him as a Rock, because he made the rock for that very purpose.

What does all of this have to do with the realities of everyday life? A lot. Since the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, it is vital for us to clearly see the world he has made to reveal himself to us. For it is impossible to glorify or enjoy what you cannot see, and it is equally impossible to communicate in a language you do not speak. Because God has designed the world to tell of his glory, and the words it speaks are heard with our eyes, the more visually literate we become the better we will be able to comprehend what he is saying, and to declare it to others. So how we see is vitally important to God and to us.

That being the case, what is the primary characteristic of God’s glory that is displayed throughout His Creation, that we as His image bearers are called to see and proclaim, reflecting it back to Him in worship and out to the world in stewardship? It is His beauty.

The Nature of Glory, from The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis

This brings me to the other sense of glory—glory as brightness, splendor, luminosity. We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves—that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that “beauty born of murmuring sound” will pass into a human face; but it won’t. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendor of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. For you must not think that I am putting forward any heathen fancy of being absorbed into Nature. Nature is mortal; we shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive. Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendor which she fitfully reflects.

And in there, in beyond Nature, we shall eat of the tree of life. At present, if we are reborn in Christ, the spirit in us lives directly on God; but the mind, and still more the body, receives life from Him at a thousand removes—through our ancestors, through our food, through the elements. The faint, far-off results of those energies which God’s creative rapture implanted in matter when He made the worlds are what we now call physical pleasures; and even thus filtered, they are too much for our present management.What would it be to taste at the fountain-head that stream of which even these lower reaches prove so intoxicating? Yet that, I believe, is what lies before us. The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy. As St. Augustine said, the rapture of the saved soul will “flow over” into the glorified body. In the light of our present specialized and depraved appetites we cannot imagine that voluptuous torrent, and I warn everyone seriously not to try. But it must be mentioned, to drive out thoughts even more misleading—thoughts that what is saved is a mere ghost, or that the risen body lives in numb insensibility. The body was made for the Lord, and these dismal fancies are wide of the mark.

Covering more than seventy percent of the earth’s surface, water is the most basic and vital element in nature. Although it is so common that we rarely think about it, there is no substance in creation with more amazing or important properties. In fact, without it there would be no life on earth, for every living thing is largely made of water and requires its unique properties to function.

One of these vital qualities is its extraordinary heat capacity, or ability to absorb great amounts of heat without significantly increasing its own temperature. To illustrate this, if the same weight of water and iron are cooled to absolute zero (minus 460º Fahrenheit) – so that no heat remains – and equal energy is then applied to both substances, when the iron begins to melt at 2,370 degrees, the water will only have reached 32 degrees. As a result, the oceans absorb and release heat from the sun more slowly than the land does, and onshore breezes bring warmth to the land in winter and coolness in the summer.

Another fascinating property of water is its expansion in cooling, which makes it less dense in its frozen state than in its liquid form. This unique characteristic allows ice to float, which is vitally important to all living things. For if ice sank to the bottom of lakes, rivers, and seas, it would gradually accumulate and lower the water temperature to a point that it could no longer sustain life. The earth would eventually freeze, and all life would cease.