With Thanksgiving Day just two days away I have been spending some time reflecting on the things I am grateful for. This may sound strange but one of the main things I am thankful for is that I have so many things to be grateful for. I could not begin to list the many ways God has blessed me in my life. Obviously in my Seeing Creation blogs I tend to focus on the world of nature and in this area there are innumerable things for which I offer thanks. I am so thankful for the beauty of God’s Creation, for inspiring sunrises and sunsets, majestic mountains and mysterious deserts, all creatures great and small, towering trees and miniscule flowers, star-filled skies and the northern lights, flowing rivers and raging oceans, and on and on I could go. For years I have been careful to express my appreciation to God for the endless wonders of nature. What I have not been so careful to do is voice my gratitude for the senses God gave us to experience these wonders.
Growing up I was taught that humans typically had five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Students today learn that there are other senses beyond these five. All the senses we have been given enrich our lives and enable us not only to survive but to enjoy the world around us. My enjoyment of nature goes well beyond just seeing the beauty around me—it is enhanced by all the other senses as well. I am thankful for the smells of nature, even if all of them are not pleasant. I am thankful for the sounds of nature. My senses enable me to experience nature in a holistic manner. Here lately I have been thanking God more often for my physical senses and asking God to help me use them more fully and effectively.
I probably should go on to tell you why I have been doing this more often lately. A few months ago my friend, Rob Sheppard, sent me a book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Ed Yong, called An Immense World. The subtitle of the book is “How Animal Senses Reveal The Hidden Realms Around Us.” I don’t read a lot of weighty science books but I am so glad I read this one. It shook my world. In chapter after chapter Yong reveals how other creatures experience life through the senses they have developed. He points out right from the start that though many animals share some of the same senses we do that does not mean that they experience their world in the same way we do with those senses. In so many ways they don’t. A lot of creatures even have senses that we humans do not and what they do with them is almost unbelievable. An Immense World is one of the most fascinating and mind-blowing books I have ever read. I learned so much reading this book and even found reading it to be a worshipful and spiritual experience. It certainly is not a “religious” book, far from it. It is, once again, a science book. But page after page I found myself saying “Wow!” out loud and praising God for being such an awesome Creator. I couldn’t help but echo the psalmist’s sentiments: “How great are your works, LORD, how profound your thoughts!”(Ps. 92:5)
Learning about the senses of other creatures and how they use them also made me appreciate the ones we have been given. They should definitely not be taken for granted. I will be giving thanks for mine this Thanksgiving and I encourage you to do the same. Happy Thanksgiving and God bless!
John Muir once wrote, “We live in ‘creation’s dawn.’ The morning stars still sing together, and the world, though made, is still being made and becomes more beautiful every day.” I have long loved this quote. Recently I ran across a hymn that echoes Muir’s thoughts. It’s called “The First Day of Creation” and was written by Thomas H. Troeger. Here are the words: “The first day of creation is dawning in the soul, upon the deep God hovers where fear and chaos roll. The inward dark is parting. The seas make room for land. Great shorelines are emerging a new world is at hand! Yet God is recreating more than our inner world: look up beyond the planets where galaxies are swirled. Look out and see how often surprising love is shown. Christ is at work reshaping both stars and hearts of stone. All life in Christ is compassed by that transforming grace which spins new worlds and wonders in every time and place. O Twirler of the stardust, O Light no darkness rims, your new creation pulses with worship, praise and hymns.”
I find comfort in the thought that each new day the Creator is at work both in the world and in our hearts. Every sunrise is a reminder that God remains active in our lives. Every day the Maker of heaven and earth is creating, preserving and sustaining the world and all who dwell therein. God did not create the world and then back away. No, God continues the work of creation to this very day.
I suspect this is a message many need to hear today. 2020 has been a wild and rocky ride for most of us. So much in our lives has been turned upside down. The deadly pandemic caused by Covid-19 has resulted in a great deal of fear, anxiety, and stress. Some may wonder if God has forsaken us. The good news is that our Maker is still very much with us and makes this known with the gift of each new day. Lamentations 3:22-23 says “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
This Thanksgiving I will give thanks for God’s faithfulness—a faithfulness revealed each day in God’s ongoing work of Creation and in God’s work in the lives of people like you and me. I will likewise give thanks that “God hovers where fear and chaos roll” and that “Christ is at work reshaping both stars and hearts of stone.” Even in 2020 we still have so very much to be thankful for.
As Thanksgiving Day approaches I’d like to ask you what your current level of contentment is. I ask this because I happen to believe that there is a direct correlation between thanksgiving and contentment. This belief was reaffirmed last night when I came across the following prayer found in Edward Hays’ book, Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim. Hays writes, “O sacred season of Autumn, be my teacher, for I wish to learn the virtue of contentment. As I gaze upon your full-colored beauty, I sense all about you an at-homeness with your amber riches. You are the season of retirement, of full barns and harvested fields. The cycle of growth has ceased, and the busy work of giving life is now completed. I sense in you no regrets: you’ve lived a full life. I live in a society that is ever-restless, always eager for more mountains to climb, seeking happiness through more and more possessions. As a child of my culture, I am seldom truly at peace with what I have. Teach me to take stock of what I have given and received, may I know that it’s enough, that my striving can cease in the abundance of God’s grace. May I know the contentment that allows the totality of my energies to come to full flower. May I know that like you I am rich beyond measure…”
Hays is right; we can all learn something from the season of Autumn. Contentment, may well be one of those lessons. There is an “at-homeness,” a sense of peace, in Autumn that we should seek to emulate. This peace, however, may not come naturally for we truly do live in a society that is “ever-restless.” That society is also quite materialistic in nature. It does little to make us content with what we have. In fact, our society seeks to limit our contentment by constantly reminding us of things we do not have. May we learn from Autumn that what we have is enough, that our striving for more can cease, in the “abundance of God’s grace.”
Thanksgiving Day is appropriately enough observed during the season of Autumn. At this time we are all encouraged to count our blessings and be grateful. I am convinced that if we will do this, and keep on doing it, we will experience far more contentment than we typically do. By focusing on our blessings, on what we do have, we experience a peace that will never come when our attention is on that which we don’t have. By focusing on our blessings, we come to the realization that we are “rich beyond measure.”
Autumn’s bounty reminds me of the many blessings God has poured out on my life. This Thanksgiving I have much to be thankful for. I suspect you can say the same thing. My prayer for you is that in giving thanks you will also experience contentment. That gift, in and of itself, is something to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!
Recently the choir at my church sang an anthem called “Thank You, God.” I’m sure the author of the piece, J. Paul Williams, could have gone in a number of different directions giving thanks to God but he chose to focus on God’s gift of Creation. Here are the lyrics: “God created everything we see, He made the misty night. He spoke and there was light. He is the giver, our praise to Him we sing. God is the giver of every good thing. He gave us seed to sow. He gave us minds to know; He is the giver, our praise to Him we sing. Forest and mountain, swift running river, love overflowing, God is the giver. Thank you, God, thank you, for every good and perfect gift. God is the one who makes the crops to grow. He makes each bud to flower with sunshine and with shower. He is the giver, our praise to Him we sing.”
Another hymn writer, Henry van Dyke, also included Creation in his popular hymn “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” Dyke, however, took a slightly different approach and spoke of Creation’s call for us to offer God praise. He wrote: “All thy works with joy surround thee, earth and heaven reflect thy rays, stars and angels sing around thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, chanting bird and flowing fountain, call us to rejoice in thee.”
These two writers remind us that God’s gift of Creation calls us to give thanks and to offer praise to the Maker of heaven and earth. This call, of course, is nothing new. You will find numerous similar calls throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Book of Psalms. There you will even find Creation itself being called upon to offer God praise. In Psalm 98 we read “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music… Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy.” (vs. 4, 7-8)
All of Creation is called upon to offer thanksgiving and praise to God. So are we. With this in mind, let me urge you this Thanksgiving to give thanks for God’s gift of Creation. The truth be known, just about everything we normally give thanks for on Thanksgiving Day would have been impossible were it not for the provisions God gives us through Creation. And may I suggest that you continue to give thanks for this good earth on a regular basis. Our life would not be possible apart from God’s gifts through Creation. So take time each day to offer your thanks for God’s provision and your praise to the Giver of all good gifts. It truly is the right thing to do.
Recently I had a chance to go to California and spend a week photographing with Rob Sheppard. It turned out to be a marvelous trip. Everywhere we went there seemed to be something special waiting for us to explore and photograph. Numerous times I found myself saying “Wow!” Even more often I would catch myself saying “Thank you!” to God for the blessing of getting to see what I saw. There were several adorable sea otters that we were able to spend time with around Morro Bay. We also had many opportunities to enjoy this year’s super display of wildflowers. At Carrizo Plains National Monument we saw wildflowers flowing across thousands of acres and even into the mountains. It was a marvelous sight to behold. We spent a good bit of time along the central coast of California and the beauty there likewise called for countless expressions of gratitude. I felt incredibly blessed to see all I did.
A few days ago I was looking at a book I own which happens to be a collection of “famous prayers.” I came across one prayer that helped remind me that for those with eyes to see there are always blessings in nature waiting to be seen. The prayer spoke to me and perhaps it will to you as well. It was penned by John Oxenham and is taken from “A Little Te Deum of the Commonplace.”
“For all the first sweet flushings of the spring; The greening earth, the tender heavenly blue; The rich brown furrows gaping for the seed; For all thy grace in bursting bud and leaf… For hedgerows sweet with hawthorn and wild rose; For meadows spread with gold and gemmed with stars, For every tint of every tiniest flower, For every daisy smiling to the sun; For every bird that builds in joyous hope, For every lamb that frisks beside its dam, For every leaf that rustles in the wind, For spring poplar, and for spreading oak, For queenly birch, and lofty swaying elm; For the great cedar’s benedictory grace, For earth’s ten thousand fragrant incenses, Sweet altar-gifts from leaf and fruit and flower… For ripening summer and the harvesting; For all the rich autumnal glories spread—The flaming pageant of the ripening woods, The fiery gorse, the heather-purpled hills, The rustling leaves that fly before the wind and lie below the hedgerows whispering; For meadows silver-white with hoary dew; For sheer delight of tasting once again that first crisp breath, of winter in the air; The pictured pane; the new white world without; The sparkling hedgerows witchery of lace, The soft white flakes that fold the sleeping earth; The cold without, the cheerier warm within… For all the glowing heart of Christmas-tide, We thank thee, Lord!”
Oxenham is right, there is always something in God’s Creation to catch our attention and elicit our praise and thanksgiving. Needless to say, some things catch our eyes or attention quicker than others but if we will really pay attention we will find plenty to give thanks for no matter where we are or what time of the year it happens to be. What are you seeing right now that leads you to offer a prayer of thanksgiving?
–Chuck
(I took the three pictures shown above on my recent trip to California.)
“Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” Psalm 100:3-4
Last week when I wrote my article for our church newsletter I encouraged our members to make out a Thanksgiving list, to identify the things they would give thanks for on Thanksgiving Day. On Sunday we had a guest speaker at church. Rev. Amy Cates likewise encouraged us to make out a Thanksgiving list but suggested we use the letters of the alphabet to do so. I decided last night I would follow my own advice and hers and make out my own Thanksgiving list. I chose to make two, one focusing on God’s Creation and the other on more general things in my life. Here’s what I came up with.
Creation Thanksgiving List: A-asters; B-butterflies; C-clouds; D-Denali National Park; E-Everglades National Park; F-ferns; G-grizzly bears; H-herons; I-Indian paintbrush; J-Jasper National Park; K-killdeer; L-lichen; M-mountains; N-northern lights; O-owls; P-pikas; Q-quail; R-rainbows; S-sea otters; T-trees; U-Upper Peninsula of Michigan; V-violets; W-waterfalls; X-xenogamy (look it up) ; Y-Yellowstone National Park; and Z-Zion National Park.
General Thanksgiving List: A-art; B-books, C-church; D-dreams fulfilled; E-education obtained; F-family and friends; G-grace; H-hope; I-imagination; J-Jesus; K-Kentucky (my home state); L-love; M-music; N-nature; O-opportunities to serve; P-photography; Q-quests to fulfill; R-regular meals (so many don’t have this luxury); S-senses to enjoy life; T-travel opportunities I’ve had; U-University of Kentucky basketball; V-vehicles to drive; W-water (millions do not have access to clean water); X-x-rays (I chose this one because X is hard and also to offer thanks for living in a time when we have made so many medical advancements); Y-youngsters; and Z-zoos and the research that takes place in many of them.
I share my lists with you not just to tell you what I’m thankful for but to encourage you to do the same. I suspect you’ll find that it’s not as easy as it might sound. Some of the letters are easy to come up with things to be grateful for, others are rather difficult. Still, it’s a wonderful and fun thing to do on Thanksgiving Day.
Finally, I want to thank all of you who take the time to read the Seeing Creation blog. It’s good to know that there are others out there who share my passion for God, Nature and Spirituality. I hope and pray you have a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day.
