Enjoying God in His Creation

This week’s blogs have been different…maybe because I’m in the first week of my month long sabbatical, but mainly it is because the cool summer mornings and evenings have allowed me to spend time sitting outside with God, my Bible and journal, and a cup of coffee (or two!).

I get up at different times each day. My responsibilities at the church require me to be up before the sun on at least three mornings a week and on those days I sit at the kitchen table which is on the backside of our house facing south. The bay window allows me to see the eastern sky and many mornings I know the sun is rising simply by the bird chorus. On some of the mornings when I can sleep a little later I am often awakened by the songs of the Redbird or the Wren…it is almost as if they are saying, “Get out of bed…you are missing it!”

One day last week, I was finished with my devotional reading and prayer time and I still had time before I needed to get ready so I went outside and just watched the sun rise. That evening I changed chairs and watched the sun set…it was a good day. There is something about being outside with God’s creation that simply renews me.

Isn’t it interesting that one of the most famous passages in the Bible is set in the environment of being outside. Think about Psalm 23…green pastures, still waters, paths of righteousness, walking through valleys, and even when the image moves from God as our Shepherd to God as our Host the table is in the presence of his enemies…which could well be outside on the battlefield.

Gary Thomas quoted Susan Power Bratton in his book Sacred Pathways,

“Experiencing the beauty and peace of God in nature is not a substitute for direct interaction with the regenerative powers of the Creator, but . . . the mending and binding so necessary to heal our stress-filled lives may flow through creation. For the spiritually oppressed or the socially injured, a pleasing or quiet natural environment can help provide spiritual release. Resting by a clear, free-running river or sitting on a sunny slope in a blooming desert grassland can bring peace and joy into very clouded souls.”

Think about Jesus…30 years of preparation for a three year ministry that would save the world and yet in the midst of all of the business of saving the world, Jesus often withdrew to the lonely and deserted places.

Some of my best memories involve time spent playing as a child in the woods. I went back to Ocean Springs, MS not long ago and those woods have been replaced by multi-million-dollar homes, but in a few weeks Kim and I will walk under the sequoias and sit in the meadows of Yosemite and I will simply be overwhelmed and overjoyed. Even this very day my family will enjoy the peaceful and yet over-crowded beaches of Destin, FL.

I think Luther summed it up for me,

“Now if I believe in God’s Son and bear in mind that he became man, all creatures will appear a hundred times more beautiful to me than before. Then I will properly appreciate the sun, the moon, the stars, trees, apples, pears, as I reflect that he is Lord over and the center of all things.”

Gary Thomas said regarding that quote, “If we don’t appreciate the outdoors, then maybe we don’t appreciate the Creator.”