Seeing Creation

One of my favorite places is the Ancient Bristlecone Forest in California in the White Mountains. These are relatively dry mountains inbetween the Sierra Nevada and Death Valley. At altitude (meaning above 10,00 feet) are the ancient bristlecones.

These trees can be thousands of years old. The oldest are estimated to be around 4,000 years old. That just blows me away. When I am in the presence of one of these trees, I understand that it was alive, and probably old, before Christ was born. I understand that, but it is really hard to fully grasp down deep. From our limited human perspective, Christ was born a long time ago. So many things have happened in human and church history since then. Yet no matter what happened, this bristlecone pine went about its business simply living in a very challenging environment.

When most people hear of bristlecone pine, they think of these ancient trees. Yet, in many locations up in the mountains, bristlecone pine grow like most any other pine in forests that look like many other pine forests. There are unique conditions in the ancient bristlecone area. The soil has a lot of a stone called dolomite — this makes the soil filled with some minerals that discourage growth of many plants and slow the growth of the bristlecone. In addition, the soil dries quickly. Even more, these trees are growing at altitudes of 11,000 feet and more, so winter conditions are severe. That keeps other plants out, which would cut wind, and further adds stress to the bristlecones. So they grow slowly, but can be damaged on one side or the other so that side dies, yet the plant keeps growing. Conditions are too difficult for most diseases or rot-causing fungi.

That kind of gives a perspective about God. We always want things to happen quickly (that certainly is true of me!), yet here is one of God’s creations that simply lives seemingly forever. A year or two is nothing to an ancient bristlecone pine. A 50-year-old bristlecone in this area is but a baby.

In Bishop Tutu’s wonderful book, Made for Goodness, he talks about how we often feel we fail or succeed on very limited timeframes. He feels that God may have success for us in mind, but it is on His timeframe, not ours, because He knows more about the world and what happens in it than we will ever know. In that vein, one might look at a broken, half-dead bristlecone and think it has failed to survive in a tough environment. Yet, God created this tree to live in this environment, to be in this environment, so loss of part of the tree does not matter because the tree is also alive and has been for centuries. Perhaps there is a lesson in the bristlecone that time is relative and that our demands for “success” or “failure avoidance” may be way too limited in their timescale.

–Rob

The garden as a good place for people to connect with the world is used a number of times in the Bible, starting with the Garden of Eden all the way up to Jesus retiring to the Garden of Gethsemane. Those two gardens, in particular, are sacred spaces. The Garden of Eden is a place of paradise where all life comes from. While the Garden of Gethsemane is often simply seen as the place of Jesus arrest and violence, you have to think a little deeper about it. Of all places Jesus could have gone to pray during this troubling time, including inside a temple, He chose to be outside in a garden. The implication is that the garden provided some relief from the stress He was under and that He felt closer to God there.

I definitely feel closer to God in my garden. It is also a place of joy because I can go there any time and explore it photographically. I do not need to go on any long trips or pack a lot of gear. It is also a place that helps relieve stressful times in my own life.

One thing that helps me feel closer to the nature that God has created is that my garden is a native plants garden. I have grown native prairie plants in gardens before in Minnesota, and now, I am growing plants native to the chaparral of Southern California. These plants represent an important part of the natural ecosystems of Southern California and help me feel more connected to them. I can now watch and photograph these plants 24/7 and all year round to learn their lives and personalities.

I think such gardens and the use of native plants is important in our landscapes. I believe that one of the reasons people get alienated from nature and do not connect with God’s creation well is that they truly are alienated from nature when all they have growing around them is either exotic plants they will never see in the wild or asphalt. What a choice. Can you imagine Jesus retiring to the Garden of Gethsemane so He could sit under exotic flowers from South Africa rather than connect with plants that were truly part of His world? How do you connect with a God of creation if all you see are plants and flowers from another continent that are not part of your world?

I love seeing exotic flowers and plants, too. I would not want gardens to never have them. But I do think the world immediately around us, including our gardens, can have a big impact on how we see nature and, ultimately, God.

Rob

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:31

In Sunday School this morning we talked about “hurry sickness.”  This isn’t a disease you hear much about today but it is both serious and incredibly prevalent.  Hurry sickness is the condition of always being in a hurry.  It comes from getting caught up in this fast paced world we live in.  Hurry sickness drains our physical energy, causes us to be irritable, and does considerable damage to our relationships (we end up being too busy or tired to give ourselves completely to those we love).  Hurry sickness can be deadly!

The antidote for hurry sickness is slowing down.  Somehow, someway, we have got to learn to slow down.  The book we’re studying suggested that one way we can do this is by practicing solitude.  We all need time away from the rat race.  This can be done in small intervals each day.  Hopefully we can also find a way to practice extended times of solitude on a weekly or monthly basis. 

I think many people would benefit from spending time alone in God’s Creation.  As a general rule, the pace of things seems so much slower in nature.  The plants and animals we see there do not tend to get in a hurry.  Here God’s Creation can serve as our teacher.

Yesterday I took my friend, Steve Ausmus, over to Breaks Interstate Park.  We hiked in the Center Creek area.  After walking a while we both made our way down to the river.  Soon we separated and both of us found rocks to sit on.  This gave us each a chance to experience a bit of solitude in a very beautiful location.  Personally, I find such experiences most refreshing and satisfying to the soul. 

Periodically Jesus would call his disciples to “come apart” for a while.  He realized that his followers did not always need to be busy or doing something.  Things have changed a lot since that time.  Our lives are busier and more hectic than ever.  The need to “come apart” and slow down, however, has not changed.    As a wise person once noted, “if we don’t ‘come apart’ we will come apart.”  If you are suffering from hurry sickness, this would be a great time for you to find some solitude in God’ healing Creation.

–Chuck

(The image above was taken yesterday at Breaks Interstate Park in Kentucky.)

Robert Frost has a poem called A Prayer in Spring.  Here’s the first stanza:

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

As Rob and I have both noted recently, this is a wonderful time of the year to take pleasure in the flowers.  In the mountains of my area one can now find trillium, bloodroot, trout lilies, hepatica, and scores of other wildflower species.  Of course, many domestic species are also currently blooming. 

The flowers are there but are we seeing and taking pleasure in them?  The fact that Frost feels the need to pray that we will indicates that this does not come automatically.  God gives us the flowers to enjoy but there are things that can keep us from experiencing the enjoyment intended.

If I read his poem correctly, Frost seems to be pointing to worry over the future as something that can keep us from the pleasures of God’s Creation today.  For the farmer the worry might be over an “uncertain harvest.”  For the rest of us it could be any number of things.  There is no shortage of things to cause us anxiety about the future.

Frost prays that God would “keep us here, all simply in the springing of the year.”  To me this is a reminder of how important it is to live in the present moment.  If we’re always worrying about what might happen down the road there’s a good chance we will miss the blessings of today.

In the same sermon where Jesus encouraged us to “consider the lilies” and to “look at the birds” he said, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Mt. 6:33-34)  In telling us this, his point was that we can trust God to take care of us each day.  There’s no need to be fretting about the future.  If we remain anxious, we will miss the blessings of today—blessings like the beautiful flowers all around us.

–Chuck

(The trillium and phacelia pictured here are common southern Appalachian wildflowers.)

A number of years ago I was introduced to the poems of Robert W. Service.  Service was sent by the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1904 to work at their Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, branch.  While there he became famous as the poet who chronicled the Klondike gold rush and the beauty of the frozen north.  I enjoy Service’s Yukon poems and none more than one called “Comfort.”

Say!  You’ve struck a heap of trouble—

Bust in business, lost your wife;

No one cares a cent about you,

You don’t care a cent for life;

Hard luck has of hope bereft you,

Health is failing, wish you’d die—

Why, you’ve still the sunshine left you

And the big, blue sky.

Sky so blue it makes you wonder

If it’s heaven shining through;

Earth so smiling ‘way out yonder,

Sun so bright it dazzles you;

Birds a-singing, flowers a-flinging

All their fragrance on the breeze;

Dancing shadows, green, still meadows—

Don’t you mope, you’ve still got these.

These, and none can take them from you;

These, and none can weigh their worth.

What! You’re rich—you’ve got the earth!

Yes, if you’re a tramp in tatters,

While the blue sky bends above

You’ve got nearly all that matters—

You’ve got God, and God is love.

 In Service’s words we find a reminder that as beneficiaries of God’s Creation we are all rich indeed—rich beyond measure.  When times get tough for us, or we just find ourselves feeling down, it truly does help to look around us and notice the wonders and beauty of nature. 

This morning as I walked to the church building from my car I became aware that it was a glorious morning indeed.  The sun was shining (that hasn’t happened a lot around here lately), the sky was a beautiful shade of blue, and the birds were singing their hearts out.  In that moment I recognized that I was truly blessed and offered thanks to God.  Surrounded by the beauty of God’s Creation I smiled for I knew that I had God, “and God is love.”

–Chuck

(The image above was taken in Yellowstone National Park along the Firehole River.)

Over the years, I have discovered many special places in nature for peace and restful meditation. By special places, I am not talking about the bold locations like Yellowstone where Chuck is now. Those are definitely special places, but not very accessible for most of us.

When Jesus was troubled in the last hours before he was arrested before the crucifixion, he went to a very accessible place of natural things, the Garden of Gethsemane, to pray and have some time alone. It is interesting and informative that he did not go inside a building, did not go to a temple, did not go to a home, but went outside to a garden. This was a time of considerable stress for Jesus, and while his prayer is very important, I think his location is, too.

None of us feel the pressure that Christ did that night, but still, we have our own pressures to deal with. Nature is, for me, a great place to connect with life and with God, and therefore, to help me with that pressure. On 9/11 when all of those terrible visions were seen on television and the awful things of that attack became known, I went off into a local nature center’s preserve and photographed flowers. In all of that turmoil of death and destruction from the attack on the World Trade Centers, for me, becoming intimately involved with those flowers through my camera connected and grounded me to life. It has been said that a flower is the ultimate expression of hope for the future since a flower only exists to create seeds for future plants.

I have planted much of our yard into native flowers, shrubs and trees. They bloom all year round here in Southern California. Whenever I am stressed with my work as an independent author/photographer, I go out into that garden and take some pictures. There are also other places that are not far that I can go to and be at peace with nature and God. Finally, I also find my and others photography helps me reconnect with nature and helps me be at peace, too.

The flower here is a monkey flower from my garden. It blooms in winter to early spring and is a common plant in the chaparral ecosystem of Southern California.

– Rob

In my last entry I alluded to Jesus pointing to the birds of the air as a reminder of God’s providence and care.  The passage I had in mind was Matthew 6:25-27 where he says, “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 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.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” 

Someone by the name of E. Cheney wrote a simple poem that addresses this: “Said the robin to the sparrow, ‘I should really like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so.’  Said the sparrow to the robin, ‘Friend, I think that it must be they have no heavenly Father such as cares for you and me.’” This cute rhyme, like Jesus’ questions to his followers, challenges us to examine our faith.  Do we really believe that there is a God?  And if so, can we trust Him to take care of us?

In the Gospel of Luke Jesus mentions birds again, this time sparrows.  He says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.”  The conclusion he draws from this is, “Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7) 

I think of Jesus’ teachings today as we prepare to enter a New Year.  As I’ve listened to or watched the news lately it’s clear that many people are looking ahead to 2010 with fear and anxiety.  Perhaps now is a good time to pause and remember that the same God who cares and provides for the birds we see all around us will, no doubt, care and provide for us in the year to come. 

Feeling nervous about the year to come?  Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air…”

–Chuck

(I photographed this lovely sparrow at my home here in Pikeville.)

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:31

In this passage, Jesus and the disciples had fed the 5000 and were tired and hungry themselves. Jesus recognized this and told them they needed to get away to a quiet place and rest. This is advice that we could often use but don’t hear. I think God is smart enough to know when we have had enough and need a break. Sometimes the world, though, closes in around us with all of its demands, with all of its pressures to do this and do that, so that we pay attention to everything that wants our attention and not enough attention to our own needs to be quiet and rest.

While I love the national parks (and am really enjoying finally watching the Ken Burns series on the parks), it would be hard to heed Jesus’ words if I could only go to a national park. The closest national park property (the Santa Monica Mountains) is an hour away through LA traffic.

But there are quiet places all around us if we are open to them. Sometimes that quiet place for me is doing close ups in my native plants garden. I can be alone there with the life growing in the garden and such scenes seen through my camera can be actually more calming and restful than popular, but overcrowded, parks such as the valley in Yosemite National Park. For me, being out in nature, focusing in on details with my camera rests my mind and takes me to a very quiet place.

There is more. Going back to my photographs later, or seeing other photographers’ pictures of their quiet places such as Chuck’s, also brings me quiet and rest.

– Rob

When I am doing a workshop in a natural area, I often tell my students that we will stay out past sunset. It is really true that the light changes then, and you can never predict exactly what you will get.

This photo was taken at Lake Tenaya in Yosemite after sunset during a workshop. Some of my group had come down here by the lake before sunset, then the rest of the group came later. Everyone was photographing after sunset, well after sunset. Obviously, the sun is still hitting the top of the mountain in this image, but everything below is well past sunset. This lake sits by a road and this is the time that everyone is leaving the park. You have to frame your image so that you do not pick up headlights along one shoreline.

There is something very magical about this time. Maybe in this case, the feeling was enhanced by feeling apart from all the people leaving the park now that the sun had set. They were missing something very special.

My group spread out along the lake. I could not help but think of God. Yes, you could hear cars, but being outside at this time was a quieting time. I felt at peace, yet also excited to watch the colors change and dark descend upon us. This is always such a peaceful, yet energizing time for me. I know that sounds contradictory, but it happens just that way. I feel like God is there telling me that this is a beautiful world to be excited about and also a time to relax and enjoy it. I cannot explain it all, but for me, I feel enveloped in God’s world and in God’s care. I think that comes in part because there is nothing around to take away from this — no cell phones, no e-mail, no traffic. Some  people might be disturbed by the cars on the road, but for me, that created a stronger contrast to what I was experiencing and made it all the better. These are times I truly feel close to God.

– Rob

In the Diary of Anne Frank Anne writes, “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.”  I can’t say that I was afraid, lonely or unhappy before coming to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but being alone in nature this past week has certainly been uplifting for me.  For the past six days I have been here soaking in the magnificent beauty of God’s Creation.

I saw a shirt recently that had had a saying Anne Frank would have approved of; it said “Nature is good for the soul.”  I truly believe that this is exactly as God intended it to be.  For humans “the simple beauty of nature” is meant to be therapeutic.  Things like sunrises, sunsets, crashing waves, singing birds, autumn foliage, and waterfalls can bring peace and tranquility to the soul.  They can lift one’s spirits and move a person to worship the One responsible for these precious gifts.

I’ve included two images from this past week that have special meaning to me.  While photographing the reflections above Bond Falls and the waterfall on Miner’s Beach in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore I experienced a sensation that God was quite near.  At both locations I found myself repeating the words “thank you” over and over again.  I was thankful for the opportunity to photograph such beauty and even more thankful for God making it possible for me to do so.  He truly is an awesome God!

Getting away on vacation has not brought me much physical rest but it certainly has provided the rest I needed for my soul.   Now if I could just discipline myself to take more mini-vacations in nature once I get back home…

–Chuck