1 Corinthians 1:18 — For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
This week’s special choir music was a song called “The Power Of The Cross”. I try each week to listen to, and sing through, the week’s music in the days leading up to Sunday, so the idea of the power of the cross has been echoing in my mind. It crystallized in my mind this morning during my quiet time — though not in the way you might expect.
I was sitting on our lanai, on a quiet Sunday morning, and a little sparrow came by. These visitors are the most modest of those that come by, although they are the cleverest singers. It occurred to me that they are only there because of the power of the cross. Oh yes, I know that the cross was where Jesus paid, specifically, the price for man’s sin we should remember that with man’s fall all of creation was blighted. Insofar as the cross is the center of God’s redemptive plan for man, it is also the center of His redemptive plan for all creation.

Jesus was the first fruits of redemption. Paul makes the point in his majestic letter to the Romans:

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope; because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:19-23)
The creation is not yet perfect. Some might say it is still in free fall. And yet it is still wonderfully beautiful and surely is only sustained by the power of the cross. Preaching on the last two of those verses from Romans, Charles Spurgeon said, “The whole creation is fair and beautiful even in its present condition. I have no sort of sympathy with those who cannot enjoy the beauties of nature.” I am with him. I think back to the flash of a kingfisher that I saw as a boy, the wonders of the small mountains I have climbed, the beauties of forests, the quiet tiny lake that our house looks onto and I rejoice in them and once more I thank the Father, Holy Spirit and Son for the power of the cross.