Glimpsing the sacred in wonder, playfulness and communion
Cycling along a stream that runs through the parkland and forest of Milton Keynes, the UK city where I live, I came to an abrupt halt. Something wonderous had caught my attention. A Kingfisher sitting on the branch of a tree. Still, attentive, hanging over the waters. Stillness and attentiveness that connected us. A sacred moment, all too quickly over as perhaps are all sacred moments. A flash of blue glinting in the sunshine, it swooped fast and low over the stream, quickly lost to my view among the trees.
The Kingfisher is well named, capturing its behaviour and vibrant splendour. In the Bible God invites Adam to be attentive to the natural world. Bringing the animals before him ‘to see what he would name them’ (Genesis 1:19). Attentiveness connects humans with the Creator and a wonderous world that God declares good.
Humans have deepened their attentiveness to the world around them through God’s gift of science. New windows have been opened to the splendour of the cosmos, near and far, large and small; of the beauty and complexity of life among which we live – beyond Adam’s knowing, even beyond our naming. Attentiveness evokes a louder, deeper ‘wow’ that responds to the wonderous garden that the Earth is: a good place, with a just right atmosphere and just the right temperature, just the right magnetic field and moon; interweaving factors allowing life in its splendour to flourish through the long journey of the Earth. The imaginative creativity of human science meets that of the divine artist, giving glimpses of the signs of God’s grace through the wonder of it all. Leading to humility? And gratitude?
Today through God’s gift of science, we see the wonderous diversity of life in wider, deeper ways than our ancestors did, inviting us to encounter divine purpose and shaping of the world as we understand the role evolution has played in bringing the world to be. In the Bible, a troubled man, Job, is taken by the God on a tour of the wonders of the natural world. Just as we are awed by the stunning images of nature documentaries, he too was captivated. Yet is our response the same as his? For at the end, Job declares, ‘My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you’ (Job 42:5). Our view is wider, deeper, higher, broader. Yet can the same be said of our attentiveness. Our thankfulness?
The world in which we live, and the life we share it with is shaped by God through the life of the Son of God, Jesus. ‘For in him all things were created … created through him and for him … in him all things hold together’ (Colossians 1:16,17). The beauty and glory of nature hints at this divine shaping. But what of the brokenness and loss seen in the long tragedy of life, remembered as fossils that reveal equally wonderous ages now long past? We still find and experience pain alongside beauty in our world. For while the Kingfisher is well named for its splendour, what would the fish in the stream name it?
Beyond beauty, perhaps God is glimpsed within the loss and hope of it all. In the catastrophe of mass extinctions, life falls yet rises again in new and imaginative forms. This is a story of life held long in hope by the pattern of Easter. Death and resurrection, revealing the love of God for the world within its chaotic dance between order and disorder; his deep sharing in its suffering, his continual creative Spirit at work bringing it towards life and hope.
Into the dance of the world, stepped the one who gives it life. Jesus, the divine, became ‘flesh and made his dwelling among us’ (John 1:14). Affirming the value of all forms of life, each part uniquely expresses God’s creative imagination, fitting within his purpose in ways that we do and do not perceive, affirming One from among the vast menagerie of life – One whose creativity, expressed in many ways including science, reflects that of the Creator. Jesus sees our world and the cosmos more fully and deeply than our satellites and scientific instruments allow. Yet he comes and sees the wonder of life through our eyes so that we might see it through his.
Jesus lived as one of us, a sign of the connection between the divine and all that is living, the divine being attentive to that which is created in a new way and inviting us to attentiveness and to our part in the purposes of God. Too often we attend to our needs and security before those of our neighbours’, ahead of the community of life with whom we share the Earth.
Too often we use our science and technical abilities to take for ourselves rather than delight over the divine wonder they reveal. In the Bible, humans were expelled from the Forest of Eden by their own folly. Now, by our continued folly, we expel others too. Long ago we named ‘the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field’ (Gen 2:20). But how might the animals name us in the world we are creating?
The Bible’s story ends with a ‘river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing … down the middle of the street of the city’ (Rev 22:1,2). As future generations pause by the stream winding through my city, will they have a chance to be attentive to the Kingfisher, a sign of the wonderful creativity of God in which our, and all life on Earth, is woven? Held in hope by God through falling and rising, it faces death yet is pulled towards fulness of life through divine presence: ‘When you send your Spirit they are created, and you renew the face of the Earth’ (Psalm 104:30).
That same Spirit is at work in our lives, inviting us to share with God in bringing hope to people and the community of life with whom we share the Earth. Turning from lives that increase the disorder of the world, let’s live in ways that collaborate with the Creator to bring peace to the Earth. Now. And for the future.
About the author
David Gregory is a Baptist minister with a background in meteorology and climate science. He serves as Baptist Missioner for Science and Environment and convenes the Baptist Union Environment Network. His recent book, Divine Windows – Seeing God through the lens of science, was published by the Bible Reading Fellowship in July 2025(https://www.brfresources.org.uk/) and explores how God might be glimpsed in the imagery of science through themes of wonder, play and communion. He is also the writer and presenter of the four-part film series ‘God Saw That It Was Good’ (www.gstiwg.co.uk), soon to be shown on the TBN UK TV channel. The blog was adapted from the last episode, ‘Life’.
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