Seeing Creation

A few years ago, Chuck had given me a book by Gerald May called The Healing Wisdom of Wilderness. I ran across it again this week because my daughter was looking for a memoir to read for a class at college on nonfiction writing. May was dying as he finished this book and it gives a lot of insight into the power of nature to heal us spiritually even if we can’t be healed physically.

May really believed that “wilderness” could be found anywhere, from a garden to a park to a wild area of nature. But he notes that our busy lives keep us from nature and its possibilities of healing and growth. There is a passage that really sticks out for me related to the problems that can occur from this, “Feeling so divorced from the nature within and around us, we make wildness an adversary that we must tame rather than learn from.” Nature as an adversary is key to a lot of nature television programs, unfortunately, such as the “Man against Wild” show (which is actually not as bad as its title — from the little I have seen of it, the star has to work with nature to survive, but the title reflects a more generalized attitude).

The world has its wildness. If you don’t understand nature and God’s place in it as the creator, that is, nature is God’s “property”, then wildness can be scary. That doesn’t have to mean being stranded on top of a wilderness mountain. That can mean being afraid of small critters, the bugs and such, that are all around us, and also part of our world. Understanding that this is all part of God’s creation helps make wildness a place of healing and peace rather than a scary place.

– Rob

A number of years ago I came across the following story, told by David J. Wolpe, in Teaching Your Children About God.  It concerns a child of a rabbi who used to wander in the woods.

“At first his father let him wander, but over time he became concerned.  The woods were dangerous.  The father did not know what lurked there.  He decided to discuss the matter with his child.  One day he took him aside and said, ‘You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into the woods.  I wonder, why do you go there?’  The boy said to his father, ‘I go there to find God.’  ‘That is a very good thing,’ the father replied gently.  ‘I am glad you are searching for God.  But, my child, don’t you know that God is the same everywhere?’  ‘Yes,’ the boy answered, ‘but I’m not.’”

I’ve used this story from time to time to try and explain to people why the woods and wilderness are so important to me.  I realize that it is not true for everyone but for me I do feel different in the woods.  I feel a closeness to God there that is not so prevalent in my more urbanized everyday life.  And because I feel a nearness to God in wild places it is crucial for me that such places be preserved.

I have a feeling that there are many others who feel close to God in the woods and want to make sure that these places are maintained.  I just hope that there are enough of us to make a difference.  Enough folks who will work to make sure that there are plenty of wild places for people to go to and experience a closeness to God in nature.

–Chuck Summers