In May of 2009 Rob Sheppard and I decided to launch a blog called “Seeing Creation.” The purpose of the blog was to give us an opportunity to share our love for nature and photography, and the spiritual connection we felt with both of these, with others. Today’s post marks the 733rd entry for the Seeing Creation site. It will also be the last. Rob felt the need to move on to other endeavors a number of years ago and I have carried on solo since then. I feel it is now time to bring this project to a close. I hope to share more posts from time to time on my personal Facebook page but will no longer maintain this site. I want to thank all of you who supported and read our Seeing Creation posts over the years. I also want to thank the editors who chose to share a number of my posts on their own social media sites. Finally, I want to thank Rob for encouraging me to pursue this dream with him long ago.
I would like to wrap things up by encouraging you to continue to explore the spiritual connection that can be found in nature. I remain as convinced as ever that the God who created the world is still revealing Himself through nature for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. I also remain as convinced as ever that we are all called to be good stewards of God’s Creation. There is a divine imperative for us to love, protect, preserve and care for this sacred earth and all its inhabitants. I feel that so many of our current problems are related to humankind’s failure to respond appropriately to this divine imperative. We can and must do better. And we will if we truly love God.
Thanks again for the support you gave Rob and I over the years. As you continue your journey through life may the Maker of heaven and earth open your eyes and heart to see the wonders of God’s love all around you in Creation. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)
In a very short period of time our whole world has changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly altered our daily lives. We now find ourselves in survival mode. We have been forced to take drastic actions just to stay safe. I hope that you are doing what is necessary to avoid the virus. Washing one’s hands, practicing social distancing and self-quarantining should go a long way in helping one to stay safe. Our goal, however, should not just be staying safe; we should strive for wellness too. Our mental, emotional and spiritual health are just as important as physical health. I hope you are doing what is needed to stay healthy in each of these areas.
For a lot of us getting outdoors and experiencing the beauty and wonders of God’s Creation plays an instrumental role in maintaining holistic health. A couple of weeks ago I did a photo trip to the Everglades and this did wonders for my health. I’m glad I got to go when I did as many national and state parks are now closing as a result of the coronavirus crisis. It may be a while before we are able to find refuge and solace in these places once again.
What are we to do in the meantime? This is a great time to start paying more attention to what we have right around us. From our own yards and neighborhoods we can still observe the sun and moon, the clouds overhead, the birds flying around, the trees budding and the flowers blooming. What we find close to home might not be as dramatic or beautiful as what we find in national and state parks but there is still so much to see, hear, smell and touch. My friend, Rob Sheppard, is currently in the midst of a project where he is using his iPhone to record a picture each day of some natural wonder around him. Even though he is not able to go far right now, he’s still producing beautiful images of nature and posting them daily on Facebook. I think that’s a wonderful idea.
As I continue to take walks in my neighborhood I’m trying to pay closer attention to the natural world around me. Doing so is good for my mental and emotional health. It is also good for my spiritual health. I’m currently reading Richard Rohr’s book, The Universal Christ. Throughout the book are reminders that God reveals Himself through the natural world. At one point he writes, “When you look your dog in the face…I truly believe you are seeing another incarnation of the Divine Presence, the Christ. When you look at any other person, a flower, a honeybee, a mountain—anything—you are seeing the incarnation of God’s love for you and the universe you call home.” Who among us does not need to experience an “incarnation of God’s love” at this time? Well, the truth of the matter is such incarnations are all around us. I urge you to look for them and to find comfort in them. Doing so may just be what we need to get through these trying times.
Last night I decided it was time for me to reread C. S. Lewis’ classic series The Chronicles of Narnia. I began with the first book, The Magician’s Nephew. It is in this volume that Lewis tells the story of the founding of Narnia. It will be obvious to most people that Lewis’ tale parallels to a certain degree the Creation story found in Genesis 1.
The beginnings of Narnia are witnessed by a handful of humans from earth and a wicked witch that have travelled through time and space by using some magic rings. They all witness the arrival of the lion Aslan and his singing the new world into creation. They do not, however, all witness this in the same way. The two children are in awe of what they see. The witch ends up running off in fear. Another character immediately begins to see the potential for making a fortune from what was being created before his very eyes. After this same character offers a complaint while so many wonderful things were happening all around him a different character says to him, “Oh stow it, Guv’nor, do stow it. Watchin’ and listenin’s the thing at present, not talking.”
I think these words are some a lot of us need to pay heed to when we stand before God and God’s Creation. Even now God’s Creation continues to unfold all around us. Like the characters in the book, we too are witnesses of God’s ongoing Creation. The Bible makes it clear that God is not finished with the work He started long ago. God is creating still. As we witness this ongoing work we would be wise to do more watching and listening than talking. We’ll see, hear, and learn a lot more that way.
A couple of weeks ago Rob Sheppard came to visit me and I was reminded how lax I had become in listening to Creation. Living near Los Angeles, California, Rob does not get to hear the sounds he was hearing where I live. He opened the window in our guest room so he could hear the crickets and cicadas. When we walked through John James Audubon State Park he commented on the sounds of the forest. All of the sounds he pointed out were common ones that I no longer really pay attention to. I guess I’ve come to take them for granted. That is not good. In order to get the most out of God’s “Other Book” I need to do more “watchin’ and listenin’.” I suspect a lot of people do. Perhaps recognizing that is a first step in moving toward a greater experience of God through Creation. I hope so anyway.
–Chuck
(I took the pictures shown above at Yellowstone National Park. This is one spot where God’s ongoing work of Creation seems pretty obvious.)
This past week I had the privilege of spending some time with my friend Rob Sheppard exploring parts of central California. I very much enjoyed Rob’s company. I also enjoyed the company of Abraham Joshua Heschel. I happened to take with me a copy of Heschel’s book I Asked for Wonder. This is an anthology of several of the famous rabbi’s spiritual quotes. The very first quotation cited is worth the price of the book: “God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance.” But Heschel has much more to say and he often points to our spiritual connection with nature. For example, he writes “We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Sublime grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe. Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight…” I have to admit that when I took this image of the Milky Way near Lake Isabella I could not help but stand in awe at the work of God’s hands.
Heschel has more to say about awe. “Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the reference everywhere to mystery beyond all things. It enables us to receive in the world intimations of the divine,…to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.” As I looked up at the giant sequoia trees in Sequoia National Forest I sensed what Heschel was talking about. For those with eyes to see there truly are “intimations of the divine” all around us in nature. And as Heschel points out, these intimations can be found not just in the giant and dramatic aspects of nature but also in “the common and the simple.”
In still yet another quote Heschel says “Out of the world comes a behest to instill into the air a rapturous song for God, to incarnate in stones a message of humble beauty, and to instill a prayer for goodness in the hearts of all men.” Spending extended periods of time out in nature I did in fact sense the call to offer a song of praise to God. I felt like shouting with the Psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.” (Psalm 103:1) I could understand why being in God’s Creation can instill one to pray “for the goodness in the hearts” of all people. At this particular moment there definitely is a need to offer such prayers.
I always learn a lot when I travel with Rob but I’m thankful that on this trip we had the companionship of Abraham Joshua Heschel and for the many wonderful truths conveyed to us through his words. I look forward to further travels with both in the future.
–Chuck
(I took the three images used here on my trip this past week.)
It is good for us when we are young because of the incomparable sanity it can bring briefly, as vacation and rest… It is important to us when we are old simply because it is there.” Wallace Stegner
For the past week I have been in California traveling with my friend, Rob Sheppard. We have covered a lot of territory during this time. We have driven through the Mojave desert, wandered around the mountains and valleys of the eastern Sierras, visited Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on the west side of the Sierras, and traveled farther westward to take in Pinnacles National Park. We saw first light on Mount Whitney from the Alabama Hills, watched a glorious sunrise from high on Onion Valley, walked reverently among the ancient bristlecone pine trees high atop the White Mountains, and marveled at the truly giant sequoias in the park that bears their name. At Pinnacles National Park we got to see a plethora of wildlife and enjoy the scenic beauty of our newest national park. Without a doubt we have been blessed!
The words of Wallace Stegner that begin this blog I saw on a wayside exhibit at Kings Canyon National Park a couple of days ago. They concern Stegner’s view of wilderness and why he thought preserving and experiencing it is important for both young and old alike. Even though I certainly fall in the “old” category when it comes to age, I still find wilderness necessary because of “the incomparable sanity” it brings me in a world which sometimes seems mad. Recent school shootings, terrorist attacks, the craziness that comes with each political season, and a lot of other things I could mention. makes me at times want to stop the world and get off. Every time I read the news or watch it on television here lately I get either angry, depressed or discouraged.
Spending a week in wilderness settings has helped put things in perspective a bit. Walking amongst bristlecone pine trees that have been around over four thousand years and looking up at giant sequoias that tower to the skies has a way of doing that. In the wilderness one finds a peace and quiet that is next to impossible to experience in the regular hustle and bustle of everyday life. Walking in the woods and observing the miracles of God’s Creation has a way of restoring peace and rekindling one’s faith. At least it does for me. And I honestly believe that God intended this to be true for everyone else. The awesome Creation we have been blessed with was not made just to provide for our physical needs; God ordered the natural world so that spiritual needs might be met as well. That’s why in Psalm 23 David writes about God making him lie down in “green pastures” and leading him beside “still waters.” I also get the impression that’s why Jesus during difficult times in his life often got away from everyone and communed with God in “lonely places.” In the beginning God declared the goodness of Creation and that goodness is seen, in part, in the therapeutic and spiritual benefits it provides us all.
I’ll not elaborate here on the second part of Stegner’s words but I happen to believe it to be true. Now that I am “old” or older I find myself just grateful knowing that there are wilderness areas still available for people like me who sometimes find this world to be anything but sane. I just hope we can preserve such places for future generations. I have a feeling they are going to need them…
–Chuck
(The pictures used above are some I took this past week in California.)
A couple of years ago Rob and I spent some time photographing at Great Basin National Park in Nevada. As we got to the end of our time there he asked if I minded if we stopped at the Pando forest in Utah on the way back. I had never heard of it. He told me of reading about it in one of Jane Goodall’s recent books and how it is a clonal colony of quacking aspens. Some researchers believe that it is the earth’s oldest living thing, some 80,000 years old. Intrigued by this we drove to Fish Lake, Utah, and found the forest. I say “forest” but in reality it is a single tree with a massive underground root system that has produced what appears to be some 47,000 trees springing from that system. Standing in the midst of Pando it was hard to comprehend how all we saw was part of one thing.
Yesterday I was reading Rachel Held Evans new book, Searching For Sunday, and came across a chapter where she, too, talks about the Pando forest. She shares the same basic information above but also indicates that a name has been given to this ancient tree, Trembling Giant. Rachel then goes on to draw some interesting and pertinent analogies between the Pando and the church. She notes, “At last count, there are nearly as many denominations in Christianity as there are trees growing from Pando. Each one looks different—beautiful and broken in its own way—but we all share the same DNA.” She concludes the chapter with these words: “Our differences matter, but ultimately, the boundaries we build between one another are but accidental fences in the endless continuum of God’s grace. We are both a forest and a single tree—one big Trembling Giant, stirred by an invisible force.”
I really like Evan’s comparison of the Pando and the church. It makes sense. The apostle Paul uses a different analogy than Evans in his Corinthian correspondence to make the same point: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Cor. 12:12-13)
The main reason I’m writing about this today is I am very concerned about how polarized things are in Christianity these days. The way many Christians attack one another you would think we were in the midst of a civil war. Some Christian groups believe that they have a monopoly on truth and that all others are either not Christians or sub-Christian. The sources of contention are innumerable but include things like how one views the inspiration of Scripture, the age of the earth, the Second Coming, the sacraments, women in ministry, etc. If you do not agree with some Christians about any of these, or other matters, you are deemed a heretic or worse.
What is so crazy about this is we are all one Body. We’re like the trees Rob and I saw at the Pando forest. What we saw with our eyes appeared to be a bunch of different trees but in reality was one living organism. There’s no way the various churches or denominations in the world are going to agree on everything. I’m not even sure they should. I’m convinced our diversity should be honored and celebrated. God is bigger than all of us combined so how could any one group get it all right?
I wish somehow, someway, we would quit focusing on what separates us as Christians and concentrate on what we have in common. As the New Testament boldly affirms “there is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:6) Just hours before he was crucified Jesus prayed earnestly that his followers “might be one.” (John 17:21) I don’t believe he expected us to all be or think exactly alike but we are to live our lives cognizant of the fact that in him we are all one. Another thing Jesus sought to make clear before his death was that his followers should be known first and foremost by their love for one another. He said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13: 35) My hope and prayer is that followers of Christ will learn to set aside their differences, focus on what they have in common, and actually present a unified witness to the world that is characterized by love. Is that too much to ask? Jesus didn’t think so.
–Chuck
(I took the pictures shown here at the Pando forest in Utah.)
