The Glorious Creation Passage in Job 38 Re-imagined for 21st Century by Trevor Thorn

Many of the beautiful NASA heritage pictures

from deep space, such as this one of

The Keyhole Nebula,

could be used to illustrate this

reimagining of Job 38.

The glorious ‘ Creation’ passage of Job 38. v4ff was written with the Bible-times knowledge of the Cosmos. This reimagining tries to express how it might have been written with today’s insights into deep space and the cosmos. (I am indebted to Prof Tom McLeish of Durham University for bringing the Job passage to attention in a recent public lecture in Cambridge, UK and thereby sparking this idea. This passage is further explored in his book ‘Faith and Wisdom in Science')

Re-imagining Job 38. 4ff

Where were you when I gave birth to the universe; when my Wisdom called forth particles from the womb of the cosmic void and seeded them into the realm of existence?

Who marked off its dimensions and form and let matter prevail over anti-matter?

On what were its footings set or who provoked its mighty expansion in the blinking of an eye?

How deeply do you comprehend the gift of light or fully understand the mysteries of its nature? 

Who of you knows from where the sounds that fill the cosmos emanated or how music distilled its harmonies from the roaring cadences of creation?

Who gave water its extraordinary properties, decreed its many forms and accorded rôles to each that it might adhere to the surfaces of gathering spheres, to nurture and give shape to barren terrains?

Can you make sense of the patterns of constellations as they would be seen from planets in the extreme reaches of the universe?

Can you leap between galaxies or re-fashion the orbits of stars or planets, or yet fully understand the fundamental forces of the cosmos?

Can you yet contemplate travelling to the beautiful Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion? Have you fully uncovered the laws of the universe or can you emulate God’s care for it?

Could you reduce turbulences that beset distant planets, weather the extreme storms on other worlds or alter the path of the arrow of time?

Have you even perfected knowledge of your own benign planet, understood the reason for its existence and how to encourage your own people to act as responsible stewards for it?

Can you fathom in your exquisitely fashioned brain the mind of your maker or conceive the depth of his love?

Will you ever understand enough to render praise and thanksgiving truly worthy of the Creator of heaven and the entire cosmos?

If you enjoy this re-imagining of scripture, you might also like to look at Psalm 24 v C21 on the blog The Cross and The Cosmos which is a collection of my poetry, prose and images which weaves together the themes of Science and Faith. 
Trevor Thorn