Curiosity
I find the world around us to be an amazing, ever fascinating place. You don’t have to go far to see wonders of our world, either. The first photo here is of a tiny native bee inside a California poppy. The second is of a predator-prey interaction no less amazing than a lion taking down a zebra – it is a crab spider having a metallic bee (a native bee) for dinner inside a coastal variant of the California poppy (it is yellow rather than pure orange). Poppies are stunning, beautiful flowers that can overpower you with their color. But a bit of curiosity can take you beyond the obvious to see what else of God’s world might be revealed.
Chuck was the first to introduce me to the idea of “two books of God”, the Bible and nature. This is actually not a new thing and has been part of our theological history that goes back many hundreds of years. Many early theologians felt that the “book of nature” was an important complement to the Scriptures. The Bible is obviously a very important part of our faith. It is the Word of God. Yet, if we are to truly believe that God is the creator, then His creation is direct evidence of Him and his power and glory, in some ways, even more than the Bible because a direct experience of nature is not a translation of God as the Bible is (even in the original languages).
I am curious about my God and being in nature and finding remarkable things there makes me smile and “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). I admit that I am not the best at rereading the Bible again and again (though I know there is value in doing that). That has little to do with the Bible and a lot to do with me – I don’t like rereading any book, watching movies more than once or watching a television show I have already seen. So for me, my curiosity about nature keeps me connected with God because I have fresh views of his work all the time.
– Rob