Have you ever walked outside at sunset and reflected on the glory and majesty of God? Have you ever hiked on mountain or canyon trails and pondered His omnipotence and grandeur? Have you ever observed wildflowers growing along the roadside or birds flitting about in the sky and meditated on God’s sovereign providence and His care for His creation? If so, you have greatly benefitted from general revelation, which refers to how God reveals Himself to mankind through nature (Romans 1:20).
It’s easy to see who God is and what He is like through the beautiful things of this world, like sunrises, waterfalls, oceans, flowers, and rainbows. But is it possible to learn about God through ordinary things, like dust, salt, or livestock? Can we learn who God is through even dangerous and destructive things, like storms, earthquakes, and viruses? Andrew Wilson, author of God of All Things, says the answer is yes.
According to Wilson, the things of this earth exist to point to God. He created it all, and every thing’s foremost purpose is to bring glory to its Creator. So, this means that every beautiful thing, every frightening thing, every big thing, every small thing, every pleasurable thing, and every plain thing can and does tell us something about God. As Wilson writes,
“Things exist not for their own sakes but to draw us back to God.”[1]
In his book God of All Things, Wilson examines ten things we find in the Old Testament and ten things we find in the New Testament and analyzes how each of these rather ordinary things reveal different attributes and aspects of the God we worship. He shares how pigs point us to God’s welcoming nature towards sinners, how mountains point us to God’s faithfulness to keep His covenants, and how fruit points us to God’s kindness towards His people. Wilson later writes,
“The things of God reveal the God of things…Everything in creation tells us something about our Creator.”[2]
I very much enjoyed reading God of All Things. I haven’t done a lot of reading on biblical theology (which studies how themes or ideas develop and progress throughout Scripture), but I always find it highly fascinating. Andrew Wilson’s book did a fantastic job on tracing these twenty things throughout Scripture and reflecting on what they can teach us about our Creator. He made several connections that I have never considered before, and I hope that I will now see things like honey, rain, and donkeys in a completely different way. If you’ve been looking for an introduction to biblical theology or you’ve wanted to know what creation can really tell us about God, you should definitely pick up a copy of this book.
**I did want to offer a brief disclaimer. In chapter 23, Wilson cites James Cone, someone who is a huge proponent of Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology is a false gospel that has become quite prevalent in recent years, and I wanted to make it clear that I do not agree with, support, or endorse Cone’s teachings. Wilson does not make any reference to Liberation Theology, but he does write about how Cone has compared Jesus’ crucifixion to a lynching tree. While there are perhaps similarities between crucifixion and lynching, I disagree with this comparison, and I feel like comparing Jesus’ death to a lynching tree misses the entire purpose of Jesus going to the cross – He went willingly for the purpose of justifying and redeeming His people from their sins. Despite this, I did really enjoy the rest of Wilson’s book, and I believe it can still be very helpful and edifying for believers.
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[1] Andrew Wilson, The God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2021), 3.
[2] Ibid., 3, 201.
