Seeing Creation

I mentioned last week that I’m leading a study group through Philip Yancey’s book, Rumors of Another World.  The chapter we looked at this past Monday had a lot to say on the subject of “seeing Creation” so I thought I’d share some of its insights with you here today.  One of the things Yancey does in this chapter is encourage people to “make daily life sacramental.”  The word “sacrament” literally means to keep the sacred (sacra) in mind (mental).  Yancey says we are called “to seek a mindfulness—a mind full—of God’s presence in the world.”

Another insight I found intriguing comes in Yancey’s discussion of the importance of Creation in God’s revelation of Himself.  He quotes Meister Eckhart who said, “If the soul could have known God without the world, the world would never have been created.”  I had never thought of the necessity of Creation in this way.  Eckhart’s words, however, have other implications.  Yancey says “If I take seriously the sacred origin of this world, at the very least I must learn to treat it as God’s work of art, something that gave God enormous pleasure.”  Then he adds, “Clearly, modern society is not treating creation as God’s work of art.”

This morning I took five of my photographic prints downtown for an exhibit that will be held tomorrow night.  They are five of my favorite prints.  I’m excited that people will be able to view them at the Artisan Alliance of Pikeville/Pike County. I am hopeful that people will like what they see.  I hope they will also see in the images manifestations of God’s glory.   A part of me would be hurt if people did not like the pictures.  What would be even more disturbing would be if someone spit on them, marked on them, or in a fit of rage smashed them.  I can’t even imagine how upset I would be if something like this happened.

If I feel that way about my own art work, I can certainly see how God could be upset with us for the way we have treated His art work—Creation.  It has to hurt Him when we do not show admiration for His handiwork.  It must anger Him when we harm or destroy what He has made.  Surely we would all take better care of Creation if we stopped and considered how our actions affect God.  Surely we would take better care of Creation, and appreciate it more, if we learned to view it with sacramental eyes. 

I encourage you in the days to come “to make daily life sacramental.”  As you view the beauty of autumn remember that what you see is God’s handiwork.  Be open to ways that God may make Himself known to you through His art work.  Find ways to express your admiration for what you see.  Remember your calling to be good stewards of what He has shared with us.

–Chuck

(Above you will find three of the images that will be on display at the exhibit tomorrow night.  The top one is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The middle one is from Kingdom Come State Park here in Kentucky. The bottom one was taken at Dallas Divide in Colorado.)

In Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke says “we must embrace struggle.”  He writes this after noting that most people seek to resolve everything  “the easy way.”  When I read this a few days ago I had to admit I have a tendency to want to resolve things the easy way.  I am certainly not one prone to embrace struggle.  Rilke then goes on to say, “Everything in nature grows and struggles in its own way, establishing its own identity, insisting on it at all cost, against all resistance.  We can be sure of very little, but the need to court struggle is a surety that will not leave us.”

Since reading these words I’ve given them a good bit of thought.  Rilke has a point.  When you look at nature you see that there is a sense in which everything “grows and struggles in its own way.”  This struggle in many instances is not something bad at all but necessary.  For example, I remember hearing about a person who came across a cocoon where a butterfly was in the process of emerging.  Seeing that it was quite a struggle for the creature this person assisted the butterfly by cutting the cocoon.  The butterfly was freed but soon died.  What this good intentioned person did not realize is that the struggle to free itself from the cocoon is a necessary part of the process.  It is what strengthens the wings so that the butterfly can fly.   I guess you could say the butterfly’s struggle is a prelude to flight.

As I think back over my own life I cannot help but see that I, too, have found strength through life’s struggles.  I can’t say I enjoy struggle but my life would be very different today had I been able to escape all the hard times or struggles that have come my way.   It’s probably only human that we try to avoid struggles when we can but no one can escape struggle entirely.  Nor should we want to.  What I now see is that struggle is necessary for the building of character.   If we do not experience struggles in life we, like the butterfly, cannot grow nor can we fly.  I think that’s what Rilke was trying to say in his letter.  I also feel it is the message sounded in the first chapter of  the Book of James.  Here we read: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (vs. 2-4)

I’m not sure how quick I will be to embrace struggle in the future but both of God’s books—Scripture and Creation—teach me that it is a wise thing to do.  If I want to grow and fly I really have no choice.  Neither do you.

–Chuck

(Above you’ll find two beautiful butterflies I have been privileged to photograph.)

Last week I started teaching a book study at church.  The book we are reading this fall is Philip Yancey’s Rumors of Another World.  This past Monday the group met to discuss chapter two of this book.  In this chapter, called “Rumors,” Yancey says something I’d like for you to think about.  He writes: “The ordinary, natural world contains the supernatural, a necessary step since we do not have the capacity to apprehend God directly.  We see God best in the same way we see a solar eclipse: not by staring at the sun, which would cause blindness, but through something on which the sun is projected.”

The Scriptures do, in fact, teach us that no one can look at God and live (Exodus 33:20).  As things are now we would be overwhelmed if we saw God directly.  You may recall that Moses was permitted to see God’s backside for a fleeting moment and this just about did him in.  God is too great and too wonderful for us humans to look at face to face but because God is also love, and desires to make Himself known to us, He has established other ways to reveal Himself to us.  One of those ways is through His Creation.

In volume one of Institutes of the Christian Religion John Calvin says God has chosen to “accommodate the knowledge of him to our slight capacity.”  This accommodation by God is a sign of His mercy and grace.  It is also another indication of His desire to make Himself known to us.  Calvin claims that God “revealed himself and daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe.  As a consequence men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see him.”  Later he adds, “upon his individual works he has engraved unmistakable marks of his glory, so clear and so prominent that even unlettered  and stupid folk cannot plead the excuse of ignorance.”  Calvin compares God’s revelation in His Creation to “a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible.”

Reflecting on both Yancey’s and Calvin’s words I find myself incredibly grateful for God’s revelation of Himself in Creation.  I certainly realize this is not the only, or even the best, revelation we have of God but it is one that has enriched my spiritual journey immensely.  I fear, however, that many people (including lots of Christians) still do not understand what an incredible gift Creation is.  Too many people see it only as something that benefits one physically or materially.  If they stop there they will miss Creation’s greatest benefit—it’s revelation of the almighty God whom we do not have the capacity to apprehend directly.  As we enter this fall season I encourage you to keep your eyes wide open.  All around us is the evidence of both God’s love and presence.

–Chuck

(I took the images above a few years ago on a September trip to the Canadian Rockies.)

“First of all, we must be present to ourselves.” –Thomas Merton

I have a trip coming up in a couple of weeks to Maine.  I love New England in the fall and am really looking forward to returning to that beautiful part of our country.  I’ve pulled out all my travel books for the areas I plan to photograph and even ordered a few more.  This is all well and good.  It’s what I should be doing prior to a photo trip.  But while all this is going on I’ve already started planning a trip to New Mexico later in the year.  Now I have not only books on Maine lying around the house, I’ve got books and maps of New Mexico scattered about as well. 

This may sound crazy but I’m having trouble focusing on the Maine trip because I’ve been thinking more about the New Mexico adventure.  Part of the reason may be that I will be revisiting sites in Maine I have already photographed, whereas in New Mexico I plan to visit several areas I’ve never visited.  Still, you would think I’d be able to focus on the trip that comes first.

What is even crazier is due to all of my planning and looking forward to the trips which are yet to come I have hardly paid notice to what’s going on in the natural world around me here and now.  Midweek I received a book in the mail from my blogging partner, Rob.  Interestingly enough, the subtitle of the book is “Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.”  I had already started thinking about the madness of my always looking ahead and not living in the moment so when I got this book I felt compelled on Friday to go outside and see what was happening in my own yard.  The pictures you see here were all taken in my yard that day over about a twenty minute time frame.  When I made the effort to look there was plenty of beauty all around me.  It didn’t require any research or maps, no plane tickets or rental cars.  All it took was a deliberate act of living in the moment right where I was.

So, yes, I’m still crazy after all these years, but hopefully I’m learning.  And what I have written about here today goes far beyond just photography or viewing nature.  I fear that many of us miss out on much that God wants to show or tell us  day by day because we are too focused on either the past or the future.  The Psalmist declared, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  (Psalm 118:24)  Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.  This day, today, is a gift from God.  My primary job is to make the most of it.  I should strive to use all of my senses today to enjoy God’s Creation.  I should strive with all I have this day to love God and those around me.  Today, I should strive to live in the moment and be fully present.  And unless you’re crazy, so should you.

–Chuck

Last weekend was the tenth anniversary of a terrible day, 9/11. Chuck posted some great words on the subject then. God is truly our refuge and strength.

But do you know what I did on that awful day? Once I had seen the horrors of the fall of the towers, I did not need to see it replayed again and again. Yet, that is exactly what television was doing. The attack was terrible enough without it being burned into our eyes. I had to get away, to be with God in my own way.

I went out and photographed fall flowers. I did close-ups of them. I sat in the middle of a field of sunflowers native to Southern California. I was alone except with the flowers. And God.

I believe God was there. “Be still, and know that I am God,” says verse 10 of Psalm 46. For me, there was no better way of being still. The flowers were not going anywhere. I had no place to be other than to be with them. Close-up photography brings us into an intimate relationship with nature, and I felt close and reassured by these gifts from God. Yet these flowers simply expressed that gift — their nature as sunflowers to anyone willing to take the time and look and listen. Christians sometimes refer to the “second” book of God — nature. There certainly is no more direct expression of His power, majesty and wonder, than what we find in nature … including the gift of a flower on a terrible day.

I no longer have the photos I took that day. I was shooting with an early digital camera and somehow those early files got lost. Still, I find close up photography to be always a comfort and a release from the world’s troubles. Those troubles do not exist inside a flower, inside this gift of God’s creation. I am carried back to that place whenever I go back to images like these. The photos here are of a redwood sorrel flower (pink) and a monkey flower (yellow).

– Rob

This morning in our worship service we read Psalm 46.  I chose this particular passage because I remember it was the one I turned to and shared with others on September 11 ten years ago.  For those who may not be familiar with this psalm it begins: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”  A few verses later the psalmist declares, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Psalm 46 is special to me because it is a reminder that God is always there for us no matter what happens.  Whether we experience natural disasters or manmade ones we know that we are never alone.  The Lord Almighty is with us and is, indeed, “our refuge and strength.”  This assurance brought me peace and comfort on that fateful September 11 in 2001.  This assurance brings me peace and comfort on this September 11 ten years later.  I have a number of heavy burdens I am dealing with right now and just before I preached today I learned that a dear elderly friend passed away this morning.  There is a good bit of hurt, confusion and uncertainty in my life right now so I needed to hear Psalm 46 once again this morning.  I needed to be reminded that whatever happens to any of us “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Interestingly, there are actually quite a few references to nature in Psalm 46.  Other than the reference to “a river whose streams make glad the city of God” found in verse 4, the allusions to Creation found here remind us of nature’s destructive powers.  We read of the earth giving way and mountains falling into the sea.  The writer speaks of earth’s waters roaring, foaming and surging to the extent that the mountains quake.  As much as I love this world God has made I do realize that there are forces in nature that can and do threaten us.  We have had countless reminders of this in recent weeks and months.

Perhaps there is a subtle caution found in Psalm 46 for us not to put our faith in nature.  Yes, as Christians we should love Creation because God loves it and He is the one who made it all.  And, yes, we should all work hard to care for and preserve Creation for that has been our calling ever since the Garden of Eden.  But we must likewise remember the dangers inherent in Creation and its temporary status.  Creation cannot save us.  The Creator can.

In verse 10 of Psalm 46 God speaks to us through the psalmist and says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  Oh how we need to hear these words today!  Being still is not our strength.  It’s hard for us to be quiet and still.  We live such hurried and hectic lives.  It’s here that I do believe that nature can be of assistance to us.  If we will deliberately take time to go outdoors and just be still, we will soon find ourselves ushered into God’s presence.  One doesn’t have to go outside to experience this, of course, but Creation has been a faithful aid to countless people over the ages in helping them connect to God.  On this 9/11 I find myself in just as much need to be still and know that God is God as I did ten years ago.  I also find myself just as thankful that “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”   It is my hope and prayer that you, too, can find some comfort and encouragement in these ancient words.

–Chuck

(I took the top image of a volcano from a helicopter in Hawaii.  The middle picture was taken on the Pacific coast at Redwood N.P.   The bottom image was photographed at Humboldt Redwood State Park in California.  All three images were taken this past spring.)