Wingham United Church

May 31, 2026

Trinity Sunday

How Great Thou Art

Genesis1:1-2:4a

Psalm 8

     I begin each week by carefully reading, then re-reading the assigned scriptures for the following Sunday. Then I read about each from my favourite commentary. I’ll admit that in my advanced planning weeks ago, my focus for today was on the Creation story from Genesis and the Great Commission from Matthew, but this week the words of Psalm 8 just would not let me go. As I read the words, I immediately thought of the words to How Great Thou Art, and by Tuesday morning, I knew I had to change our opening hymn.

          King David wrote in that Psalm that, when he looked at the night sky and witnessed the work of God’s fingers, the moon and the stars set in their places, he couldn’t help but call out, “My Lord, my God, how glorious is your name in all the earth,” or, as our hymn exclaims, “when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hand hath made, … My God, how great thou art.”

          We read the story of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis and many of us immediately take note that scientific discovery has proven that it didn’t really happen exactly as described in our ancient scriptures. We still have more questions than answers about the origins of the universe, and every new discovery only seems to lead to even more questions. I accept that the world was not created in a week, but I cannot even consider the possibility that everything we know is the result of an incredibly unlikely succession of random coincidences. There has to be intelligence behind it all – more than intelligence; genius.

          Like David, when I take time to consider the amazing world we live in with its astounding variety of flora and fauna, I too am awestruck. The fact that a single cell can divide into two, then continue to multiply until a fully formed human being is created defies reason. The power of a hurricane or the ability of a tiny trickle of water, over time, to create canyons are almost beyond imagination.

          Just the nearly infinite variety of butterflies in the world boggles the mind of anyone who takes a few moments to consider them all. A few years ago, I was taking pictures of butterflies and bumblebees around a lilac tree. In the process, entirely by accident, I snapped a picture of what I later discovered was a hummingbird moth. Without the stop motion of my camera, I would have mistaken it for just another bumblebee. I had never even heard of such a creature before. I’ve been fortunate enough to photograph another since that day hovering around the blooms of the butterfly bush in my own backyard.

          I love watching nature shows, especially those narrated by Sir David Attenborough. He too is enthralled by a world inhabited by such creatures as the great blue whale that survives by eating creatures barely visible to the human eye, or honeybees that can communicate with one another to tell their friends where to find the best nectar by dancing.

          We are still discovering that we share this planet with creatures we never knew existed. I read a story recently about an underwater photographer who filmed a creature on a reef in the South Pacific in 2003 that bore a remarkable resemblance to Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street. It was years before scientists found and identified a mating pair of these creatures in 2021, which is the minimum requirement to consider them a species. This tiny pipefish, similar to a seahorse, has been officially named Solenostomus snuffleupagus.

          We have discovered creatures living in parts of the world that we thought were uninhabitable. Every day we discover something new about our world that no one ever even imagined.

          Then, we look up at the night sky on a clear summer night, and see all those stars and realize that each is a sun at the centre of another galaxy, with its own mysteries yet to be explored. How can we not exclaim, “My God, how great thou art,” and, like David, feel very small and insignificant.

          The Creation story also reminds us that in creating this marvelous world, God was providing us with the means to survive. Last week, my family enjoyed our first taste of green onions grown in our back yard garden. It won’t be long before I can make a salad of lettuce and spinach that grows there as well. I must wait longingly for that first ripe tomato, but I know it’s coming. Even the great variety of food we eat should inspire us to marvel at God’s majesty, glory, and imagination, yet how many of us even give thanks when we sit down to eat.

     When I consider all these things, I echo David’s words when he wrote “What are mere mortals that you should think about them.” Yet, David recognized what is also stated in our Creation story. After creating this amazing world with all its diversity and wonder, God gave it to us as a home and put us in charge of looking after it. Some translations of Genesis 1:28, including the NRSV in your pews, the NIV, and King James, say that God told the first people to “fill the earth and subdue it.”

That’s pretty much what we have done. We have filled the earth, not only with people but with all the stuff that people want. We have polluted the air, the seas, and the ground. People live along the edges of mountains of garbage, picking through the things other people have thrown away to find some sustenance. We fight wars over who has control of earth’s resources. We have crowded many of God’s creatures out of their homes and hunted others to extinction. The world God created so wisely and lovingly is warming up to a point where we must wonder if someday, once again, it will become a great chaotic sea with no land to support life.

     It’s easy to move from “My God, how great thou art!” to “My God, what were you thinking?” It’s hard to imagine that God would have put humans in charge of the world if He had known what a mess we would make of things. The New Living Translation interprets God’s instruction to Adam and Eve as “Fill the earth and govern it.” I think that must more closely align with God’s intent than the word ‘subdue.’ The world was placed in our care, not to be conquered, exploited, and destroyed, but to be cared for and preserved.

     Perhaps the key to changing the way we approach how we view our world is to slow down and notice the things that should leave us awestruck: the beauty of a sunset, the majesty of a mountain range, the intricacy of a butterfly’s wing, or the delight in a bird’s song. Maybe we should take at least one day a week to slow down and take note of the world around us, and exclaim, “My God, how great thou art!”

          Rev. Colin Snyder, MDiv