The Beauty of Creation

Summer can be a time to open our eyes to the beauty of God’s creation, and in so doing renew our personal faith and sense of covenant with God.  A weekend drive down the road to our own scenic and largely undiscovered Dauphin Island can be a metaphor for our spiritual lives:  from the rusted hulks of man’s industrial works turned to naught, to the graceful egrets and ever changing sand landscape of the island showing what nature has wrought.  In that both short and in the last few miles extremely scenic drive, we can experience the comparison between man’s short lived creations, and God’s eternal works.  How rare it is for us to open our eyes to God’s ceaseless handiwork.

How seldom we wake up like Jacob and say, “The Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” (Genesis 28:16)  But that is precisely the point – even Jacob at first did not realize God was with him.  Not only did he not realize God was with him, he went so far as to make a deal with God.  God will be his God, if God does what He promises.

Clearly that was not a very high form of religiosity.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be feeling religious all the time, if we did not need some special event or revelatory experience to open our eyes up to God?

Sometimes from adversity comes a spiritual awakening.  All too often, I have visited, counseled, and prayed with the sick in our community as they search for physical healing in their lives.    The bad news of a doctor’s report can cause us to think, not only in terms of fear and apprehension, but also in terms of spirituality.  How miraculous it is for our bodies to function normally most of the time!  Our bodies themselves are extraordinary in the way they heal.  Pondering the complexity of just one small aspect of our bodies, even the growth of one single hair upon our head, can lead to a spiritual stirring.

Wake up to the beauty of God’s creation!  God is with us, if we only open our eyes to the obvious, which remains hidden for so many.