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Amid all the troubling news this week from around the world, it was both a relief and a delight to see the wondrous images of the universe from the James Webb Space Telescope, released by NASA. The space agency promised a front-row seat to the cosmos, and what a sight it was: images of dazzling stars and stunning galaxies as they were more than 13 billion years ago, 600 million years after the Big Bang, and showing how the universe came into being. It’s very different from the account in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, of the world being formed in seven days, now considered by many as a metaphor for God’s creation. Yet some Christian believers remain critical of science, thinking that theories that life evolved through chance and certain necessary processes leave no space for God the creator. But others, who combine a belief in God and a background in science, have no such problem. They say that continuous evolution – of the kind demonstrated through the images from the James Webb Telescope – is entirely in keeping with belief in God. They argue that God is the starting point of the universe, which is dynamic and so participates in the creativity of God. Some years ago I spoke to the then director of the Vatican’s space observatory, the scientist and Jesuit priest George Coyne, who said it was time for believers to move away from the idea of a dictatorial, designer God. Coyne thought a helpful analogy was to see God as a parental figure who sustains the universe and who would allow it to grow into adulthood and go its own way. In other words, Coyne the scientist challenged theologians: he was asking them to accept that God is not the omnipotent figure they always argued he was. Instead, a loving God, said Coyne, frees the world to be in continuous evolution. For me, it is the words of a poet rather than scientists or theologians which help make sense of creation. In his poem God Is Born D H Lawrence built a picture of the universe evolving – from vapour and atoms to plants, creatures and on to humanity, with this creation being an expression of God. The history of the cosmos, wrote Lawrence, is the history of the struggle of becoming. And he ended with a final flourish of optimism: And so we see, God is not Until he is born And also we see There is no end to the birth of God.