Most people realize that Christians have a particular viewpoint on history, with Christ's birth and eventual return at the end of time as Son of God as the central event and the grand climax.
But Christians also have a distinctive viewpoint on planet earth and the entire cosmos, because we regard the heavens and the earth as God's handiwork.
I don't know whether the Big Bang theory for the origin of the universe is true, because some evidence does not fit. Certainly Einstein himself was dubious at one stage, disconcerted by its compatibility with the Judeo-Christian concept of creation. But if the Big Bang was truly the beginning rather than the last piece of conjecture or evidence open to us, the traditional Christian view is that there was nothing previously, not even time; apart from God.
God is not the best and highest part of creation and God's function is not to plug the gaps in our scientific knowledge. God belongs to another order completely, beyond our measures and calculations, but recognizable, able to be glimpsed by the intelligence we share with him. The Old Testament psalmists told us that God's glory is "above the heavens" and "his greatness is unsearchable."
While we do not worship the mighty forces of nature, we do believe that creation is basically good and ordered; at least up to a point. The stability and beauty of creation, the simplicity and elegance of the laws of physics, the interdependence of all creatures, all reflect God's goodness, which is obliterated neither by the mystery of evil and suffering nor by the reality of natural catastrophes.
We don't believe that humans are simply the toughest, smartest and meanest of the animals, but are the centre and summit of creation. Only humans know God, are able to choose between good and evil with free will and have such a share in God's intelligence that we can perfect nature and create new wonders, not only by science and technology, but through art, music and language.
Holidays, when we are relaxed, are a good time for a heightened respect and gratitude before God's handiwork and human inventiveness.
Recently I was at The Entrance in the late afternoon. The weather was perfect, warm, with a light breeze. Children were playing on the lawns and swings, families out walking. Old migrant couples, the women ahead with their men-folk behind, promenaded stiffly along the estuary. As the tide was out children were wading through the shallows, a few men were fishing and three old large pelicans, in perfect formation with their wings scarcely moving, glided along magnificently before diving for a splash landing.
The thirteenth century Italian St. Francis of Assisi had it right. "May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses."
