It’s a theme that runs through the Bible, this idea that the natural world sings God’s praises, even if we humans forget or neglect to do so. St. Paul talks about creation groaning, in labor, waiting for the return of Jesus. Jesus himself says that if humans don’t praise him, the rocks and trees will do so instead.

“The heavens declare the glory of God,” says the Psalmist in Psalm 19. I’ve written here before that God is that which is greater than what can be thought. We now can think in terms of galaxies and solar systems, black holes and quarks and planets. And God is bigger, greater, vaster, than that which can be thought. And this same God is the God who was born in a manger, who cares about human beings, who is defined by the word love.

For Christians, as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth, let’s look around, “while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy.”