Our theme this week was that of joining in with Creation’s praise, based on Jesus’ words in Luke 19 “If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise.”

There’s something undeniably awe-inspiring the more we see of the world or universe we live in. Some of us have been enjoying ‘The Wonders of the Solar System’ presented by Brian Cox and Richard Hammond’s ‘Invisible World’. In the latter we discovered that the spectrum of light visible to the naked eye is a mere 0.00000000001% of what actually exists – and that if you represented that spectrum of light as an octave on a key board, you’d have to extend the keyboard 93 million miles – to the sun – to cover all that there is! It makes you wonder what God sees!

I also came across an article on the net about how scientists at Sheffield University believe they have recorded the Sun singing! They have shown that there are specific frequencies that resonate from the Sun’s atmosphere. The sun emits acoustic waves in exactly the same sense as a plucked guitar string.  They go on to say that when the Sun sets off flares and such, there are even more sounds that are emitted. The frequency at which the Sun is “singing”, is too low for the human ear to hear. It’s intriguing to think that the Sun is singing for its creator and no one else.

On top of that, in the last decade, scientists discovered that the earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, whilst the origin of this sound remains a mystery.  They also say that unexpected powerful tunes have been discovered in this hum. It is known as ‘Earth’s Hum’.We took time walking from the bandstand to look with new eyes and listen afresh to the world around us, using Psalm 65 in The Message to prompt our praise to join with that going on already. The passage ends:

Dawn and dusk take turns
calling, “Come and worship.”
Oh, visit the earth,
ask her to join the dance!
Let them shout, and shout, and shout!
Oh, oh, let them sing!

It felt good later to share bread (a Sabbath Challah loaf) and wine, using the words from the Jewish Friday night meal, praising the God who brings forth bread from the earth and fruit from the vine… A good time to be reminded of our deep connection with the world we live in.

This was our centrepiece with stones reminding us of the ThirdSpace community.

Trumpeting praise