He spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

— Psalm 33:9

Though my father wasn’t a carpenter by trade, he loved to work with wood. He enjoyed taking a piece of wood and transforming it into something useful and pleasing. As creatures made in the image of God, we all have an inborn desire to make things useful and lovely. In this we imitate God, who created the heavens and the earth.

Psalm 33 recalls God’s almighty power in creating everything around us: the sky, the sun, the stars, the mountains, the oceans. God not only created all that we see; he also created good things we can’t see—like air, gravity, and sound, as well as love, goodness, and justice. God did this, as the psalm says, through the power of his spoken word.

When we say, with the Apostle’s Creed, that God is the “creator of heaven and earth,” we are declaring that the same God who made the mountains, forests, and oceans made each one of us too. What’s more, we are declaring that this God hasn’t stepped back from what he has made; no, he still delights in sustaining it.

We can take great comfort in knowing that the all-powerful creator and sustainer, God Almighty, is the one that we also call our heavenly Father. God cares for us; he knows what we need; and he will never let us slip from his tender care.

May your unfailing love be with us, Almighty God. Guide us to put our hope in you. Amen.