I keep returning to a passage of Scripture in the New Testament that establishes Christ’s supremacy over all things. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together,” Paul writes in the letter to the Colossians 1:17. This isn’t a throw-out message for Paul; he goes to great lengths to communicate this “all things” aspect of Christ’s reign.
In our day-to-day lives of work commuting and tossing away used coffee grinds, it’s easy for us to add an asterisk after all things. All things except for… Name some unpleasant, unloved, undesirable, or ugly annoyance in our world—and suddenly “all things” becomes “most things,” then “some things,” and if we’re really cranky, “none things.”
If we sit with it long enough, though, the Christ hymn, as it is called, in Colossians 1:15-20 reorients us to the truth of Christ’s supremacy. Believing that truth, really embracing that reality, has the power to radically change our view and engagement with the world.
The Advent devotional Heaven and Nature Sing by Hannah Anderson invites us into the world of “all things” that Christ has created.
Heaven and Nature Sing by Hannah Anderson
Ever since I learned about the “two books” theology that recognizes God as the author of two different books as pathways to encountering the character of God—the “big book” of creation and the “little book” of the Bible—I’ve been even more enamored with learning about the workings of all things in God’s world. That’s one of the reasons I love writing for Root & Vine so much. It is an outlet for me to remain curious about God’s creation and the way that people are engaging with it for the good of people and the planet.
So I experience a great surge of joy and delight when I come across kindred spirits like Hannah Anderson, who are able to pull back the veil and invite others into seeing the beautiful harmonies singing between creation and the Bible.
In her Advent devotional, Heaven and Nature Sing, Hannah Anderson presents 25 Advent reflections “to Bring Joy to the World.” Organized into four sections that follow the traditional themes of Advent (hope, faith, joy, and peace), each entry draws upon the natural world, Anderson’s encounters with it, and the truths of Scripture that resonate with this particular season to welcome in the Light of Christ.
In her first meditation, “Wintering,” Anderson considers what Paul says about hope in Romans 8, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us,” writes Paul. He continues:
For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children
Romans 8:19-21
Anderson articulates a thought I’ve never been able to fully put into words when she responds to Paul, “It’s a strange thing to think of the earth this way—as having a will or having to wait or even having the ability to hope for redemption. Even stranger that the earth would be our partner in hope, longing for freedom and life and glory as much as we do… I find in nature an unexpected ally in the work of hope.”
I audibly gasped when I read that last sentence. Do you know that feeling, that feeling of recognition and awe when someone names exactly the thing you’ve thought or wondered forever? Yes. That’s it. That’s it exactly.
This is the kind of resonance I’ve experienced as I’ve traveled with Anderson through her Advent reflections. All of creation is groaning in hope for the coming King, who has promised to restore all things. All things, from the family tree to the evergreen, every valley, every beast, all things visible and invisible, they are all hoping for the glory of God to be made known and manifest in them.
The thing is, it’s already there. The glory of God is in all things because Christ is before all things, and in him all things are held together, from the cosmic beginnings billions of years ago to the ticking of this particular clock and into the far distant future. We get to participate in that glorious union; in fact, we are already participating in it if we have eyes to see it.
And that’s what Anderson gives us: 25 meditations to witness God’s already-presence in our midst, 25 ways creation is waiting with us, hoping with us, worshipping God-with-us with us.
It is an important reminder during a season that for some can be isolating, for others overwhelming, depending on our circumstances. Whether we’re distracted by the busy details of a holiday or cloaked in a gray cloud of loneliness, it’s very easy to miss the glory.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss it.
Maybe right now, our hope feels shrouded by feelings of despair. How can you say, Sarah, to have hope, when the world seems so lost? Advent is the season of hope, but it isn’t a whitewashed, Hobby Lobby, cursive writing placard version of hope. Real hope is fierce.
In her entry “Anointed One,” Anderson says, “It’s been said that hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage. Anger at the way things are and courage to see that they don’t stay the same.”
Maybe this Christmas, it’s time to join our voices in the groaning of creation, to turn our ears to hear the rocks crying out, to lift our eyes to see the way things are and be angry. And then to take courageous action. Let us hope for the kingdom of God to be made manifest now.
We don’t have to miss it. Hannah Anderson gives us 25 entries into that redemptive kingdom.
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