Genesis 2.4b-9, 15-end; Revelation 4; Luke 8.22-25

Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever. Amen.

USING new equipment, scientists are, apparently, likely to discover 700,000 new galaxies this year. The first few days yielded seven new comets, and 461 potential new planets. These are only new to us: our insight, not their existence, has changed. We are in Job's shoes on his whirlwind tour behind the scenes of creation when God asked: "Where were you when I made all this?" (Job 38.4)

Revelation describes heaven's worship of God as creator; Genesis brings us down to earth, and reminds us that, as we humans discover and name things that God has made, we are simply following the first man's example. Theologically, Genesis tells us that the only thing not good in God's creation was man's aloneness. So God made a helper, and the outcome was delight. In the alternative story in Genesis 1, the theological refrain "God saw that it was good" yielded to it all becoming "very good" when humans were created.

If Genesis expresses God's primal creative interaction with the world in story form, the Gospel records how God incarnate interacted with that same world. Creation in some way knew its maker and responded to Jesus's presence and authority; a storm was stilled, water bore his weight, food fed more people than it should. Matthew may have been expressing the same theological thought when he described the earthquakes at Jesus's death and resurrection (Matthew 27.51, 28.2).

By stilling the storm, Jesus demonstrated his authority over creation, and brought order into the chaos of his disciples' fear. Although apparently a rebuke, his words suggest that he expected more of them than fear: he expected to see God's likeness in his children, and assumed that, despite their distress, they were capable of having faith to face a violent storm.

Sometimes, God, who has made us in his image, has more confidence in us than we have in ourselves, and the collects for the two Sundays before Lent express our willingness to be stretched. So this week we pray to be taught to discern God's hand in all his works, and his likeness in all his children; next week, for grace to perceive his Son's glory, that we may be strengthened to suffer with him.

It is easier to see God's hand in the glorious parts of creation than to face the crueller elements of life on this planet. We are rightly awed at the thought of spotting 700,000 more galaxies, and rejoice at all the good that humans do. Far harder is when we hear of people who traffic, enslave, rape, and murder other people, often women and children, to satisfy lust or because those people have sought education. Apart from the horrific cruelty, and the denial that every person bears God's likeness, the isolation that this enforces physically or psychologically is as wrong as that of the man in Genesis, which God redressed.

Lest we slip into pointing the finger at other nations and cultures, or even at people such as Jimmy Savile, we should expect to be challenged as the Holy Spirit, answering our prayer, helps us to discern differently in our own situations. We may see more deeply. As an example, Etty Hillesum knew about people failing to see God's likeness in her, simply because she was a Jew living under the Nazis. While her understanding of human sinfulness grew, her faith in God awakened and blossomed, and she could relish beauty and goodness.

She was able to smile at a "pitiful" Gestapo officer who bullied her, and described trying to look even the worst crimes straight in the eye, to discover the small, naked human being amid the monstrous wreckage caused by people's senseless deeds.

"I sank to my knees with the words that preside over human life: 'And God made man after his likeness.' That passage spent a difficult morning with me." Then, amid the suffering, her unflagging caring brought hope to people who were losing their dignity during the transit to death, even when she was making that journey herself.

Unlike the disciples, Hillesum reminds us that we can have faith in God even when we are afraid. In this Epiphany season of revelation and insight, we pray to dare to look this world straight in the eye, expecting to discern God's hand and presence. If what we see is wrong, God's example is always to bring good.