Creation and Jesus

Immediately after my conversion God’s excellency began to appear to me in everything: in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, in the waters, and in all nature. The Son of God created the world for this very end, to communicate to us through it a certain image of His own excellency, so that when we are delighted with flowery meadows and gentle breezes we may see in all that only the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ.

When we behold the fragrant rose and the snow-white lily we are to see His love and His purity. The green trees and the song of the birds, what are they but the emanation of His infinite joy and benignity? The crystal rivers and the murmuring streams, what are they but the footsteps of His favor and grace and beauty? When we behold the brightness of the sun, the golden edges of the evening cloud, and the beauteous rainbow spanning the whole heaven, be but behold some adumbration of His goodness and His glory.

And, without any doubt, this is the reason that Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness, the Morning Star, the Rose of Sharon, The Lily of the Valley, The Apple Tree among the trees of the wood, a bundle of myrrh, a doe, and a young hart. But we see the most proper image of Jesus Christ when we behold the intellectual and spiritual beauty of the mind and heart of a truly holy man.

-- Jonathan Edwards
Taken from “The Excellency of Christ.”