Seeing Creation

Some of the most famous words attributed to Francis of Assisi are the following: “All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made, and first my Lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.  How beautiful he is, how radiant in all his splendor!  Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.  All praise be yours, my Lord through Sister Moon and stars; in the heavens you made them bright and precious and fair…”

I suspect many would view St. Francis’ words as whimsical or strange.  Who goes around calling the sun her “brother” or the moon his “sister”?  Not many, I suppose, but I’ve come to appreciate the way Francis and others over the centuries have viewed various elements of God’s Creation as family members.  In fact, I wonder at times if some of our environmental woes may have been averted if we had not lost grasp of our familial connection to the rest of the earth.  Everything that exists—the sun, moon, earth, plants, animals, humans—has the same source, God.  We all come from God and we all belong to God.  That makes us family, does it not?

Two key ingredients in any healthy family are love and respect.  I am very thankful to be a part of a family where these two virtues are abundant.  Where these virtues are absent trouble is inevitable.  This is true not just for our immediate family but also for our extended family that includes all of Creation.   Every person and every thing that God has made deserves our love and respect.  If we do not extend them this there will be trouble.  You can count on it.

The rest of Creation is due our love and respect, if for no other reason, because God made it and it manifests His glory.  St. Francis’ words cited above reveal his belief that praise comes to God through all that He has made.  Note carefully his words “through all.”   Recognizing that all of God’s Creation should be viewed as family helped Francis see the beauty inherent in God’s handiwork.  This beauty, in turn, led him to offer his worship and praise to the Maker of heaven and earth.

Each day and each night we have visual reminders in the sky of God’s goodness and love.  Let us give thanks for “Brother Sun” and “Sister Moon” for the light—both physical and spiritual—they shine upon us.  Let us also join with them in offering our praise to “the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17).  It’s a wonderful thing, after all, when families can do things together…

–Chuck

(I photographed the sunrise and moonset shown above a couple of weeks ago in Big Bend National Park.)

When I was much younger I remember there being a song by Jim Stafford in which he declared “I don’t like spiders and snakes…”  I have a feeling that there are many who feel the same way about these creatures.  For some reason a lot of people hate spiders and snakes.   I will confess that at one time I did too.  I disliked them because I was afraid of them.  Part of this fear was instilled in me by others while I was a child.  Watching horror movies that featured spiders and snakes probably didn’t help either.  I suspect the biggest reason I feared and disliked them was I did not understand them.

In Rob’s last blog on this site he wrote about Death Valley’s pup fish and noted that they are good and valuable, if for no other reason, because God made them and declared them to be good.  The same thing can be said for spiders and snakes, along with any other creature we may deem detestable or unlikeable.  Every creature that exists on the earth is here because the Creator chose to make it.  From this truth we can discern that every creature that exists also has a purpose.  If we would only take the time to learn about those creatures we don’t like we would discover that each one has a beneficial role to play in their respective ecosystem.   We might also be forced to admit they are beneficial to us.

It would help all of us to remember that everything that God has created manifests His glory.  I have been reading a lot lately about Celtic Spirituality.  Last night I came across a Celtic hymn in Carmina Gadelica that included these words: “There is no plant in the ground but is full of His virtue; there is no form in the strand but is full of His blessing.  Jesu!  Jesu!  Jesu!  Jesu! Meet it were to praise Him.  There is no life in the sea; there is no creature in the river, there is naught in the firmament, but proclaims His goodness.  Jesu!  Jesu!  Jesu!  Jesu! Meet it were to praise Him.  There is no bird in the wing, there is no star in the sky, there is nothing beneath the sun, but proclaims His goodness.  Jesu!  Jesu!  Jesu!  Jesu!  Meet it were to praise Him.”

Each of our lives would be enriched if we could come to recognize that everything God made, including spiders and snakes, proclaims His goodness and can lead us to offer praise to Jesus.  With that in mind, I encourage you to pray the prayer Thomas a’Kempis prayed long ago: “Lord God, make my heart straight in your sight, so that every creature will be to me a mirror of life, and a book of holy doctrine, for there is no creature so small or insignificant that it does not show forth and represent the goodness of God.”

–Chuck

(I took the spider, snake and wasp images shown above last week in Big Bend National Park.)

“There is a time for everything…a time to be silent and a time to speak.”  Ecclesiastes 3:7

Last night as I was driving home from the airport in Louisville I played a CD by my favorite contemporary Christian artist, Steven Curtis Chapman.  In his song “Speechless” he sings these words: “I’m astonished and amazed; I am silenced by your wondrous grace.  You have saved me, You have raised me from the grave.  And I am speechless in your presence now.  I’m astounded as I consider how You have shown us a love that leaves us speechless.”

As I listened to these words I certainly concurred with Steven’s sentiment; God’s love and grace often leave me speechless.  So too does the beauty of God’s Creation.  Several times on my recent trip to the desert southwest I could only stand in awe at what I was seeing.  I was “astonished and amazed” as I looked at the marvelous formations in Carlsbad Caverns.  I was “astounded” by the beauty of Big Bend National Park.  I was left “speechless” as I looked out on the pristine dunes of White Sands National Monument.  There were so many times on this trip that I was overwhelmed by what I saw, and at times heard, in God’s Creation that I simply had to stand in wonder, awe and silence.

This was not a new experience for me.  Countless times I have beheld beauty that humbled me and left me speechless.  I say “beauty” but in reality it is the Creator that leaves me overwhelmed and lacking words to express what I’m feeling.  As a pastor I make my living talking about God but there are times when words get in the way.  I can understand why the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” (5:2)  When we encounter God, wherever or however that might be, the best thing we can do at times is be silent.

There is no doubt a time to lift up our voices in praise to God.  Every single day we should offer Him words of thanksgiving.  But it is not a bad thing at all to “be still and know” that God is God. (Psalm 46:10)  Christina Rossetti once said, “Silence is more musical than any song.”  I cannot help but feel God is honored when we stand speechless before Him.  It is in those moments we let God be God and that is enough.

–Chuck

(I took the top image at Big Bend National Park, the middle one at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and the bottom one at White Sands National Monument.)

“I don’t understand what all the excitement is about minners.” Chuck and I were at the Salt Creek boardwalk in Death Valley, watching the Salt Creek desert pupfish when Chuck overheard this comment from another visitor.

“Minners”, indeed! The desert pupfish were clearly visible and they are about minnow size. There is nothing particularly unique about them on first glance. And while Jesus had a lot to do with fishermen, no fisherman would be interested in these little critters except perhaps for bait (though that would be totally illegal!). But first glances can be deceiving.

These small fish are descendants of freshwater pupfish that were common throughout Death Valley a long time ago before it was desert. And they are amazing survivors. As the climate of Death Valley changed, the water dried up and isolated these fish into small groups associated with springs. The Salt Creek group is in a short stream that starts from a spring, then before long, fades to nothing in the desert. But in the meantime, the stream is home to these active fish. They get their name from an early settler who thought they “played” like puppies, but all that activity was really about finding mates and defending territories. The fish are easy to see since the water is barely inches deep at its deepest.

But this is not the important part of this story. As years passed, the water gradually became saltier. These little fish, being the survivors that they are, adapted and evolved to handle the water. This spring can have salt concentrations 2-5 times that of seawater, yet these pupfish thrive here. Their bodies now have ways of getting rid of the excess salt. They actually have to drink the water and remove the salt in order to stay hydrated!

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” So says Jesus in Matthew 6:26. And in Genesis, it says, “So God created … every living and moving thing with which the water teams … and God saw that it was good. God blessed them.” (Genesis 1:21-22) Obviously, God takes care of His creatures and believes they are good and worthwhile. I believe he helped these pupfish find their way in a land that was changing to desert by influencing their evolution to adapt to the change in salt water. He could have simply let them die from the change, but He didn’t.

Maybe one reason these “minners” are worth considering is simply that God cares about them. Sometimes I feel we start becoming rather uppity human beings and want to know what good something is. That is a human centered way of thinking, not a God-centered way of thinking. The good of any part of nature has nothing to do with what we think its purpose is, but simply is good because “God saw that it was good.”

– Rob

In Psalm 139 you find these words: “Thou has enclosed me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there.  If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Thy hand will lead me, and Thy right hand will lay hold of me.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to Thee, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to Thee.” (vs. 5-12)

I thought of these words yesterday as I walked through Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. It was my first visit to this famous cave and I have to admit I was very impressed. Both the size and beauty of Carlsbad Caverns is awe-inspiring. I constantly found myself amazed by the work of the Creator’s hand. I also found myself sensing His presence. Far below the earth’s surface I realized that what the Psalmist wrote about long ago is true; there is nowhere you can go to escape God’s presence.  His love and grace follow us wherever we go.  I concur with the Psalmist, “such knowledge is too wonderful to me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.”

One of the things that crossed my mind while touring the cave was that all of this beauty existed long before any human being entered it. I cannot believe that it was made beautiful eons ago just so humans could one day enjoy looking at it. I am more inclined to believe that God Himself delights in beauty and, as I have written about recently, He created it for Himself.

Each day when the tourists leave the caverns the lights are all turned off. It is so dark you could not see your hand if you placed it in front of your face. That is the cave’s natural state. Without the artificial light’s illumination no one can enjoy the cave’s beauty, no one but God that is. The Psalmist declared that “darkness and light are alike” to God.  He can, and I am confident does, enjoy His handiwork without any light whatsoever. When I ponder these things I cannot help but offer praise and adoration to my God and Savior.

Towards the end of the tour we came upon a formation with the name “Rock of Ages.” I couldn’t help but think how appropriate it was that someone named such a glorious formation this. I hope those who see it will make the connection to the hymn of the same title. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ truly is the Rock of Ages and for that I am eternally grateful.

-Chuck

(I took these images yesterday at Carlsbad Caverns.  The bottom image shows the formation, “Rock of Ages.”)

In a few hours I will begin a journey that will take me out west to the Chihuahuan desert.  This desert region is found mostly in Mexico but does extend into southern New Mexico and Texas.  The only section of this desert that I’ve visited before was at White Sands National Monument.  I am looking forward to getting to explore other portions of it as I photograph Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend National Park.

While doing some preparatory reading for this adventure I picked up John A. Murray’s book, Cactus Country.  Here I found these words: “Like any desert, the Chihuahuan has much to teach us about nature and life, especially the good life.  It is a place to get outside of time for awhile, to listen to the song of oriole and the breeze in cottonwood leaves, to watch the sun rise and the sun set, to look up at the distant stars in renewed wonder.”

I agree with Murray that the desert, along with other ecosystems, has much to teach us about nature and life, “especially the good life.”  I don’t know for sure what Murray meant by “good life” but for me it is the life God meant for us when He created the world.  I believe that the Creator put the world together in such a way that we can, if we pay attention, learn much about life and how it is meant to be lived.

The past couple of weeks I’ve been reading from the Book of Proverbs before going to bed at night.  Numerous times in this wonderful collection of wisdom the writer discerns lessons from the natural world.  In Proverbs 30 alone the biblical writer makes references to the earth’s winds and waters, its land and fire.  Further references are made in this chapter to ravens and vultures, eagles, snakes, badgers, locusts, lizards, lions, roosters, and goats.  Even the lowly ant is mentioned as an example of something small, but wise, since ants “store up their food in the summer.” (v. 25)

I encourage you to learn about nature and life, especially the good life, from your surroundings.  People have been doing so since the beginning of time.  I know school will soon be getting out for a lot of folks but maybe it’s time for some of us to just begin.  May we all be open to learning what we can about the “good life” through the Scriptures and God’s “other book.”

–Chuck

(I took the two images above at White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico.)