This post is a little different to most: it is a set of music, readings and meditations I put together to accompany Jacqui Parkinson’s Threads through Creation exhibition at Victoria Methodist Church in the autumn of 2025. In total it contains seven reflections based on twelve different textile panels – read or listen to them in your own time as you wish. Many thanks to all the readers, singers, musicians, technicians, caterers and others who made the event possible! Most of the recordings are taken from that occasion.
In the beginning
from Pink Floyd – Echoes
Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.
Reflection
We see nothing of the formless void or the darkness covering the face of the deep in this artwork, but we do see a representation of God: that vast coloured spiral, expanding for ever and ever into infinity. And superimposed is the golden glow of the Spirit of God – hovering, dancing and shimmering; light, life and energy some of its defining characteristics.
When you look closely, you see not only the spiral of God, but stitched on top are shapes and forms. Stars, planets, plants and as we move outwards ever more complicated life forms.
Is this the plan beginning to form in the mind of God? The idea, the outline for what is to come? A burst of light as the universe explodes into existence? Billions of years of dust and stars and planets, and then somewhere, on the edge of the Milky Way: life!
Or is this simply a way for us to think of God, who is love, as being woven into the fabric of the universe, part of everything that is – whether God is the cause of it all or not? God, not necessarily our creator, but simply that which brings order, light and life? The truth at the core of everything that exists? In some way visible or discoverable in all that is?
Lyn Lloyd-Jones – Out Of The Chaos
Light and Water
Genesis 1:3-8
Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Reflection
‘And God separated the light from the darkness.’ In the panel depicting this, it is as though we can see this process happening: the light and dark being pulled and stretched away from one another. The light and the darkness are separate entities – and yet remain enmeshed. The waters, too, are separated – and yet remain linked by the rain. And as with light and darkness there is contrast at play: the water can be life giving – the rain watering the land, the refreshing spring or stream – but equally it can form huge waves and currents which take life away all too quickly.
Where are we? Somewhere in the middle? At times drawn to the light and at other times drawn to the darkness? Sometimes seeking the quiet brook and sometimes seeking the lure of the dangerous sea? Different desires within us pulling us in different directions? Or do we feel at the mercy of circumstances around us: sometimes being bathed in light and love, refreshed by water and led by quiet streams? And at other times being engulfed by darkness, disorientation and fear? The waves and storms of life overwhelming us?
We seem to be faced with a world which is both life giving and life draining. An ambiguous world where we find ourselves caught up somewhere between the light and the darkness, somewhere between the gentle waters and the raging storms.
Where is God in all that? When you look closely at the panel showing darkness and light you see the spiral of God stitched into it, over and over again, across the whole panel. The spirals overlap with one another, and with the dark and the light. God is everywhere! God, the one who brings light, is present even, or perhaps especially, in the dark. For ‘the darkness is as light to you,’ one of the Psalmists writes. And at the bottom of the sea, do we see great storm waves and currents? Or the spiral of God? About to lift us back up from the depths? Bringing new life where we think we face death? The imagery we use in baptism: being submerged beneath the water, only to be raised back up to new life.
Finally, there are the rainbows. How beautiful when the light is split into its constituent rainbow colours. Life in all its fullness! Accessible not only when life is good and light, but also visible in those dark sections of the panel. God supporting us and offering us new, deeper perspectives even in the dark times of our lives?
John L. Bell – God To Enfold You
Text: John L. Bell (b. 1949)
Nature
Genesis 1:9-19
And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
F. J. Haydn – The Heavens Are Telling
Genesis 1:20-31
And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
All Creatures Of Our God And King
Text: St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), translated by William Henry Draper (1855-1933) (alt.)
Music: Melody from Geistliche Kirchengesäng 1623, Cologne; arranged by R. V. Williams
Reflection
These panels showing the creation of the natural world are full of such joy and exuberance. The swirling water amongst the lush green, the majesty of the night time stars, the gorgeous colourful rainbow with birds and sea creatures of all kinds, the idyllic riverside scene of humans and animals ranging from tiny bugs to the mighty elephant and giraffe. What a wonderful celebration of the natural world this is.
And God pronounces it good. And it is! The man and woman are created equally. No animals are to be eaten – only plants. And that final image shows humans and animals in harmony and friendship with one another. The only words that might sit uneasily with us are those that speak about humans having dominion over all the creatures. Surely that is no justification for the tyranny with which we have treated the natural world in recent centuries? No. It was meant to reflect a God-like rule of love and care that seeks healing and fullness of life for all. Not so much a taming of nature, but a working with nature. Something allowing us still to rejoice and experience awe in the face of the wildness of nature, the grandeur of the night-time stars or the breath-taking views from the top of a mountain. Allowing us to be put in our place and remember that we are just one part of something much bigger and more beautiful.
And so what we have here, is a vision which speaks to us not just about the beauty of the natural world, but its interconnectedness. Again and again we see the spiral of God woven into it all: at the centre of the garden, circling the North Star, created by the fish as they follow a spiral path in the sea. We are reminded of the sanctity of all life, not just human lives; and that in all aspects of the universe we can catch glimpses of God.
Can we ensure that this vision is not lost?
Helen Yeomans – We Got All The Love
Text: Helen Yeomans
Rest and Silence
Genesis 2:1-3
Thus heaven and earth were completed and all their array. On the seventh day God had completed the work he had done. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating.
Reflection
For six days God speaks and things happen. Now on the seventh day, God goes silent and rests. Has God stopped talking? For many people that is how it seems. No trace of God, no sound from God to be found anywhere.
John’s gospel suggests otherwise: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and what God was the Word was.” God’s nature is to communicate.
In this panel it is as though the creation from those first six days is being prized and pulled apart, to reveal below once again the spiral of God. God is still here, underlying everything. And surely there are few human beings who do not appreciate the beauty of nature, who love to be awed by it, who thrive when surrounded by a network of loving relationships, who receive enjoyment from close friendships, and who flourish when their life is enriched by art, music and creativity. Not everyone may see this as an experience of the divine, of course. But that doesn’t stop the Spiral of God weaving its way through everything.
But God’s communication goes deeper than this. As those four sections of creation are pulled apart, they form a cross shape, pointing ahead to Jesus and the cross on which he died. “The Word became flesh,” we read in John’s gospel. As Christians we believe that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the clearest way, yet, in which God speaks to us. Telling us of unconditional, self-giving love, fullness of life on offer for all, the Spirit of God from which nothing in all creation can ever separate us, not even death.
And still, there is more. For even in total silence God can speak to us. As we quieten our minds and listen out for the silence of God, we find God inviting us in to rest with God on this seventh day. And in the resting, in the quietness of God listening to us, as we listen to God, we find a depth of communion with God, that fills our hearts with love, with joy and with peace.
Taizé Community – In God Alone
Text: Taizé Community
Two Stories
C. H. H. Parry – God is Love: Let Heaven Adore Him
Test: Timothy Rees (1874-1939) (alt.)
Reflection
So here we are, at the end of day 7: the world has been created. So far, so good. No, so far, so very good. So awe inspiring and splendid, so colourful and rich and exuberant, so joyful and hopeful, so full of promise. Yes, we saw darkness, too. We saw the flood waters that can drown us far quicker than we can imagine. But at the heart of it all, is the love of God; which brings us light, which brings us back up out of the flood waters, which gives us rest and peace. Here is a story which speaks about goodness, about love and light and life at the very heart of the universe, at the very heart of our being. Supporting us and strengthening us as we journey through this world.
So why do we still have four more panels to go? Because this isn’t the only story about the creation of the world offered by the Bible. There is a second story. And this second story has a very different tone to it.
Our artist doesn’t actually move on to this second story straightaway, but interjects a later interpretation using other Biblical texts. It introduces the devil as an angel thrown out of heaven – who then becomes the snake when we return to the account in Genesis. And so the creation starts not just with God, but with an opposing force which works against God. The result is a much darker story. A story which sets human against human. A story in which wrongdoing, judgement and punishment seem to place us in a much more sinister world with a much darker path ahead of us.
Lyn Lloyd-Jones – Into the Chaos
The Fall
Isaiah14:12
How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
Revelation 12:7-9
And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-19a, 20b-22
In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’
Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air.
But for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Genesis 3:1-7
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Boris Ord – Adam Lay Ybounden
Text: anonymous, 15th century
Reflection
This story is written as one about temptation. And when we look at the figure of Satan being thrown out of heaven – what a gorgeous, sensual, beguiling figure it is. Aren’t we tempted to join its side? It may be headed for darkness and yet, isn’t this where the beauty in this artwork lies? In those orange curves, the patterned snake? Not in the angels and their sharp swords. Nor even in the rainbow which has somehow lost its shine.
But perhaps it is worth putting thoughts of temptation aside for the moment. What happens when Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The story simply tells us that they recognise their nakedness and sew themselves clothes from fig leaves. But surely so much more happens. For isn’t the ability to distinguish good from evil the development of a conscience? The ability of us humans to use ethical and moral reasoning? Our ability to overrule our instincts and emotions? The development and growth of our prefrontal cortex, if you want to look at this in scientific terms. It is the development of our conscious selves that can decide to do the right thing, even when our tiredness, our hunger, our desires, our greed, our natural instincts encourage us to do something different.
So often this story is described as humanity’s “fall”. But isn’t it instead our “rise”? Our rise above the abilities of animals? Or perhaps we should say: that which sets us apart from animals? Isn’t it precisely our ability to distinguish between good and evil which makes us “in the image of God”, to use the language from the first creation story? So why is this seen so negatively here? When previously this was seen as our privilege or God’s gift, the way God has made us? This story seems to set us against God and against one another. Or is this simply an attempt by people in a pre-scientific age to make sense of the world and the fact that we do so often feel estranged from God and from one another? The sense that perhaps evil as well as goodness could be woven into the fabric of the universe? The coiled snake lying opposite the spiral of God at the centre of the garden?
So was that first bite of the apple really a giving in to temptation? Or was it simply a part of the evolutionary process that turned us gradually from homo erectus into homo sapiens? Surely, the battle with temptation only starts now. Can we not only distinguish between good and evil, but can we do the right thing – despite our instincts? And can we derive pleasure and fulfilment from doing so? With the help of God’s Spirit maybe we can – at least that is what the writers of the New Testament promise us.
J. S. Bach – Subdue Us By Thy Goodness
Test: translated from the German of Elisabeth Kreuziger, 1524
Now
Genesis 3:9-13
The Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’
Genesis 3:22-24
Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
Reflection
Here they are, leaving the garden of Eden: not just Adam and Eve, but all the animals, too. For the world into which Adam and Eve are banished, is the world in which we now find ourselves: together with all of nature, the animals of the polar regions, of the jungle and the desert, of the steppe and the swamps. This “fallen” world is still rich and diverse, as colourful as the one created over seven days. But it is also broken. It is the Darwinian world of survival of the fittest. It is a world in which power hungry humans cause deaths and misery on vast scales, in which we humans are shrinking and destroying the habitat of countless animals, decreasing the diversity of species day by day. It is a world in which for our own comfort we destroy the delicately balanced climate that has enabled us to flourish. It is a world in which we give in to our own selfish desires. Too often, as Paul describes it, we “do not do the good we want, but the evil we do not want.”
Are we back where we started? In the midst of the chaos at the start of creation? Brought about by that snake which winds its way between our feet?
Fortunately, the snake is not the only animal to accompany Adam and Eve. Also by their feet is a lamb, a symbol for Jesus – who shows us that as humans we are not cut off from God. And flying alongside Adam and Eve is the white dove, a symbol for the Spirit of God who still dwells inside us. So we may at times feel as though we are at a distance from God – that golden spiral which remains in the garden of Eden. But through God’s Spirit we are not left alone. We have a force for good which can help us transform our hearts, that can help us in our quest to do the good we want. And in Jesus we see the unstoppable love of God from which we can never be separated. The love of God which comes to us through humans of all kinds, which can infuse our whole being and which carries us and strengthens us through all our ups and downs.
So even in this broken world, the love of God is still stitched into the fabric of the universe, bringing us light and life. If we listen out, we can still hear the tune of God’s love which will bring us healing, wholeness and peace.
Lyn Lloyd-Jones – Out of the Chaos (including prayer)
John Rutter – For The Beauty Of The Earth
Text: F. S. Pierpoint (1835-1917)
Prayer
A prayer: God, you who are stitched into the very fabric of the universe,
open our eyes, our ears, indeed all our senses to you,
that we might recognise you in every part of the world around us;
not only in the places where we expect you – in light and in beauty –
but also in the dark places, and the things and people that we are not drawn to.
Our hearts break when we see nature spoiled and broken,
when we see people suffering, or dehumanised by others;
and we feel helpless in the face of it.
So please fill our hearts with faith in the presence of your love everywhere and always.
Fill our hearts with hope of renewal and new life in all places and situations.
Fill our hearts with your love, so that others may more easily encounter you in us.
And may we head our now filled with joy at the beauty and creativity of our world,
and filled with your deep peace that you give us through your Spirit dwelling inside each one of us.
Amen.
Thanks
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the ‘performance’ of this material on 4 October 2025. The music was licenced using the licenses of Victoria Methodist Church (One licence A-735379, CCLI copyright licence 222959, CCLI PRS licence 1489492, CCLI PPL licence 1673662).
The recording of Haydn’s The Heavens Are Telling is taken from the Come and Sing performance at Victoria Methodist Church on 8 October 2023. The full video recording is available at https://youtu.be/s6bBFl06ydc.
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