What did it look like when God said, “Let there be light,” and there was? What did it sound like when He called birds and cheetahs into being? What does it mean to be a sub-creator—using God’s materials and laws to move His creation forward? Many people try to imagine the Creation story and humanity’s response to the Creation mandate (Genesis 1:28) through art. There are many mediums to choose from. Here are two current examples.
All Creation Sings—in 3-D
On the sixth floor of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., a sign invites visitors to “Please touch the artwork.” When guests place their hands on the walls, the room fills with bright flashes of moving color and music.
The museum’s new “All Creation Sings” experience opened in April. The project explores the days of Creation and what it means for God’s image-bearers to create.
The experience uses Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Tiny lasers project 3-D images onto walls. “All Creation Sings” starts with the six days of Creation. Images of humpback whales and constellations swirl across the 110-foot walls. Sixteen speakers flood the room with sound effects and music.
The rest of the experience focuses on how humans bear God’s image into their own creative efforts. About 10 minutes into the experience, the LiDAR sensors project famous artwork including paintings from the Sistine Chapel.
Dylan Thomas helped design the experience. He says making the multimillion-dollar project came with two main obstacles. Most of the editing had to be done on a computer screen. So it required great imagination to conceive the visuals and reproduce them in 3-D.
Additionally, the complexity of the idea presented a challenge. It’s tricky to pack in so much information without overwhelming an audience (or making folks feel seasick while watching). “How do you tell such an infinite story in 35 minutes?” Thomas asks.
The designers opted not to try to tell the whole account. But they did want to prompt audiences to meditate on what an amazing story it is. Composer Dan Forrest had a similar idea when he wrote his musical composition Creation.
Creation Choral
It’s the night before the Rivertree Singers perform Creation for the first time. Lit by pink and blue spotlights, the 200-member choir rehearses at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. But composer Dan Forrest is still tweaking the music. Climbing onto Stage Right, Forrest nods to the xylophonist and inches past the second violins. Without speaking, he motions for the woman on the Yamaha synth to crank the volume.
Creation is a 12-movement oratorio (a choral piece with orchestra playing along). It develops out of the six days of the original Creation, but also acknowledges that much of the original goodness still remains to this day, after the fall into sin. “I wanted to write something that celebrated the beauty of this planet,” Forrest explains.
The first three movements focus on the Trinity. Before time began, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoyed perfect fellowship. The songs about this unity include Latin chants that are thousands of years old.
Other texts aren’t very old. Movement three, “The Lion Sings,” features a deep bass vocalist. The movement references a scene in C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew, in which Aslan sang the world into existence.
The middle section of the concert dives into the individual days of Creation. This part includes songs “Light,” “Deep Blue,” and “Ish Ishah” (humanity in Hebrew). But even these movements bring out only details of what God made. By the end of the concert, audiences won’t get the full gospel story laid out for them. Forrest wants audiences to appreciate just how beautiful everything God made really is. He hopes that will point them to Christ.
“Beauty doesn’t redeem us,” he says, “But it can point us to the fact that we long for redemption, and that there is a Redeemer.”
Forrest wanted Creation to sound beautiful for the audience. He wanted the musicians to enjoy it too. He even wrote that desire into the sheet music for movement eight, in which the soprano sings about having wings like a dove. On the page in her hands, the musical notes are a kind of augenmusik (music for the eyes). Because the melody moves up and down, the notes on the score look like a bird in flight.
by Bekah McCallum in Duluth, Georgia
Why? Even though much in creation is affected by the consequences of sin, we can appreciate God’s incredible design of the world and celebrate it through music and art.
