How God Created the World To Be a Glorious Symphony

Many ancient cultures about how their "god" or "gods" sang the universe into existence, thus foreshadowing the Creation by God.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

Nothing was created by accident, as God wanted all things to sing together in a beautiful harmony that is beyond our understanding.

Have you ever noticed the intricate way the earth was created, and how interconnected everything is? For example, sometimes we think that if we remove an pesky insect from an environment, it will be better for humans.

However, the moment we eliminate a species, we discover that there was another plant or animal that depended on that insect, creating a ripple effect that we never expected.

It should remind us how carefully God created the world, intending it to be a glorious harmony that sings his praises.

God the Musician

St. Athanasius comments on this analogy in his Discourse Against the Pagans that is featured in the Church's Office of Readings:

Think of a musician tuning his lyre. By his skill he adjusts high notes to low and intermediate notes to the rest, and produces a series of harmonies. So too the wisdom of God holds the world like a lyre and joins things in the air to those on earth, and things in heaven to those in the air, and brings each part into harmony with the whole.

By his decree and will he regulates them all to produce the beauty and harmony of a single, well-ordered universe. While remaining unchanged with his Father, he moves all creation by his unchanging nature, according to the Fathers will. To everything he gives existence and life in accordance with its nature, and so creates a wonderful and truly divine harmony.

Many scientists can attest to the order of the universe and how interconnected everything is.

St. Athanasius continues his reflection, again using the analogy of a musician:

To illustrate this profound mystery, let us take the example of a choir of many singers. A choir is composed of a variety of men, women and children, of both old and young. Under the direction of one conductor, each sings in the way that is natural for him: men with men’s voices, boys with boys’ voices, old people with old voices, young people with young voices Yet all of them produce a single harmony...Although this is only a poor comparison, it gives some idea of how the whole universe is governed.

Some might argue that sin and evil has complicated this harmony, distorting what God had created.

While in some ways that is true, J.R.R. Tolkien believed that God is able to use those discordant notes, weaving them into his harmonious song. He describes how God does this in his mythological tale that is found in the Silmarillion, speaking about the boisterous notes offered by a Satan figure:

[It] was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other [God] and woven into its own solemn pattern.

In other words, God is able to even use the bad things that happen in this world for the ultimate good of humanity. God is a masterful Musician, and produce a harmony in creation beyond what we could imagine.