One of the most important aspects of creation is that it tells on the creator. This is not always obvious. There is a YouTube channel that is sometimes recommended to me that has a video about who created the Bible, and the joke of the video (albeit not an intentional one) is that the author takes the writings of clueless academics rather than the Bible more seriously when it comes to who wrote the Bible. The Bible itself gives very detailed information, most of the time, about its sources. While there are some books, like Ruth and Hebrews, that are famously anonymous, most of the Bible is not that way. In the vast majority of the Bible, there is detailed information about where the given information came from. Some of the writers, like Luke, are world-class historians who make their perspective and approach explicitly clear. At other times, writers will subtly (or, in the case of John and Mark in the Gospels, not very subtly) point out where they have their own eyewitness testimony to make. At still other times, as is the case throughout the historical prophets, the various source material is made very plain, even if the chronicles of the kings of Judah and Israel and various prophets is not at this time available to us to see from which larger annals and chronicles the writer selected.

This is one of the ways that creation tells on the creator. We tell on ourselves when we cite our authority for saying what we say. What sources do we consider to be valid, and do we take a given work to be serious on its own terms? The sources we use in our writings is not always straightforward. The book of Jude, for example, uses two non-canonical works that it cites as authority. This can be viewed in multiple ways. Some people might be led to think higher of the Assumption of Moses and 1 Enoch because Jude cites them, but others will look at Jude’s citing of sources because he was drawing his own conclusions from sources viewed more highly by his intended (and somewhat antagonistic) audience. Whichever view we hold about such matters will tell on ourselves. It will tell on our belief system, on the level of subtlety or trickery we have and support, and on how clever we think others to be.

There are other ways that creation tells on the creator. I was pondering a recent message that I gave, and it struck me that what I said and the perspective that I had and my own life experiences had dramatically shaped what I was saying, and although I was trying to avoid giving a lot of personal information, what I said could not help but tell about the sort of experiences and background I had. It made me feel uncomfortable that even without telling stories I could not help but tell something about what was going on inside my head, and what issues and problems have long been on my mind. It seems I am not alone in these reflections and this sort of musing.