Seeing Creation

Last week I shared with you the names of some very special photographers who have been mentors to me when it comes to seeing and photographing Creation.  There is yet another person I also have to point to as a mentor.  He died decades before I was born and as far as I know never took a photograph with a camera.  Yet through his writings I have probably learned more about seeing the spiritual side of nature than from anyone else.  That person is John Muir.

I discovered John Muir’s writings about the same time I decided to take up photography.  I immediately fell in love with his writings.  I admired the enthusiasm he exhibited as he described nature and how he frequently used scripture and theological language to express what he experienced in nature.

One of my favorite books is John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe.  The following passage, written by Muir on one of his voyages to Alaska, is a prime example of what drew me to Muir.

“All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God’s eternal beauty and love.  So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best, and it requires a distinct effort of the will to get oneself in motion for a change of place.”

Later, in the same entry Muir adds, “And thus we find in the fields of Nature no place that is blank or barren; every spot on land or sea is covered with harvests, and these harvests are always ripe and ready to be gathered, and no toiler is ever underpaid.  Not in these fields, God’s wilds, will you ever hear the sad moan of disappointment, ‘All is vanity.’”

I suspect many of you are already familiar with the life and writings of John Muir.  If not, I encourage you to become familiar with them.  I know no better guide to seeing Creation.

–Chuck

(The top image was taken at sunset in Mount Rainier National Park.  The tide pool  image was taken at Tongue Point on the Olympic Peninsula.)

In the course of writing this blog I have indicated numerous times that the world we live in should be viewed as a marvelous gift from God.  Today I thought of a couple more reasons why Creation is such a wonderful gift.  First, it helps move us to worship.  I often share with my congregation that worshipping God is the most important thing we can do as humans.  Looking at and studying the natural world helps us realize the greatness of God.  This, ideally, will lead us to worship Him.

Second, and this is directly related to the first reason, it helps to keep us humble. When we look at God’s gift of Creation and contemplate the wisdom, power and love that are revealed in it we recognize our true position before God.  All of a sudden we don’t seem so big or in control of things.

In most of the Book of Job we find Job pretty confident that he understands how everything works (or should work) and that he has control over his own life, but in chapter 38 God finally speaks and asks “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?”  God goes on to ask Job a lot of questions that reveal to Job that his understanding is lacking and that he is definitely not in control of things.

If you’ll take time to read Job 38-41 you’ll discover that most of God’s questions to Job pertain to the natural world.  Here are a few examples.  “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?”  “Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?”  “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or seen the storehouses of the hail…?”   “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?  Can you loose the cords of Orion?”

By the time Job responds in chapter 42 he is a humbled man and is ready to offer God worship.  He says “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.  You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”

Like Job, in nature I find “things too wonderful for me to know” and this both humbles me and leads me to want to worship the Creator more.

–Chuck

(The image above was taken at Mt. Rainier National Park a number of years ago. Before this great mountain I definitely felt humbled!)