The title of today’s post is from a sticker printed by my long-time creation-care friend Peter Illyn, director of Restoring Eden. It’s in reference to Luke 5:16 that speaks about Jesus going into the wilderness to pray. When I looked up the verse in my Bible software, I discovered that several biblical translators found in the original language a sense that this was a regular occurrence for our Savior and Creator. One translation says He “used to withdraw” to the wild places. Others say He went there “habitually” or “constantly” or “often.”
I think we can assume that Jesus did do this regularly. And I bless the camp counselor who first sent me out into “the creation” for a personal quiet time like that. It was at Camp Michawana in west-central Michigan. My dad was on the board of the camp. He had been since Lance Latham, the founder of AWANA, was compelled by a Michigan state land-use policy decision to move his Chicago-based youth camping program out of Michigan to Wisconsin in 1945. The camp program was conducted for about eight weeks each summer at facilities built in the thirties by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was set on the sandy shore of a shallow little lake.
The counselor believed it was beneficial for his boys to have a time of solitude and quietness with God for about a half hour each morning; so we were assigned to go into the woods to find our private spots. The significance of his assignment is highlighted by the fact that some fifty years later, I could still take you to that spot. Images of it remain vivid in my mind: A mossy hump at the base of a big white pine that leaned over the shore of Long Lake. Some of the tree’s roots arched into the water where their shadows provided cover for shelter-seeking 
bass. Turtles, frogs, and dragonflies were my companions as I sat there contemplating my Bible-study lesson for the day. I realize now that the biblical principles I was consciously absorbing were virtually parallel in benefit to the spiritual values I was receiving unconsciously from being alone and receptive to the voice of God in the wild.
Several years ago I picked up an old book titled Work, Play, and the Gospel, by Malcolm Spencer. In his chapter on the beauty and life of the Spirit he speaks of the significance of natural beauty to our souls:
Grace is the word which we attach preeminently to that quality of the life of Jesus which makes us long to be like Him, and it is also the word we use to express that overflowing bounty of God which produces in man incalculable inflows of spiritual life. We have but to awake to the beauty of things, and to believe that life is meant for discovery and reproduction of beauty, because God is like that, and from every corner of the world where beauty lurks, spiritual life and energy come flooding into our souls.
Take some time today to tend to your soul by experiencing and dwelling on something beautiful from the hand of our Creator, be it the African violet on the window sill, the hummingbird at the feeder, or a walk in the park.
See you outdoors,
Dean
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Oh yes, Dean, how my heart and mind resonate with the title of this post: My soul needs the wild!
The Navigators have (or had) a tract that I believe the title is “How to spend a day with God” or something close to that. I read that over 30 years ago, and found a spot in the mountains of NC and spent a day right there, just me and God. Had my Bible, a hymn book, a pad of paper and pencil. I would read a while, pray a while, hike and pray a while, get a bite to eat, then read, pray, hike, and it was wonderful.
Since that time, I slip off from time to time and repeat a lot of what happened that day, and it is refreshment and fresh air to the soul and body too.
Someone may ask if that isn’t a little dangerous with wild animals, ledges to fall off, etc. to which I respond “Its much safer in the wilderness than it is on the street in front of my house!”
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Dean, you have a way with words.
Here in Tacoma, we have many gulches that empty small streams into Puget Sound. Growing up, I lived close to one. Mom would say, “Don’t go in the gulch, hobos live there”. That, of course, made it all the more mysterious and attractive. Its steep banks were covered with alder and maple trees, and thick with ferns and undergrowth. A couple of old tires and a rusty baby carriage would lay at the bottom in the muddy stream. Some hardy soul had installed a rope swing that swung out into the void, if you were brave enough to try.
Now, fifty years later, that gulch is still there, mostly the same. It still calls to me to come visit. A maintained trail wanders through it now. The trash has been removed and the stream cleaned up. There are hopes that salmon will come and spawn there.
But for me it’s a small piece of my childhood, a “wilderness” right here in the city. A place to get away from my cares for a few minutes.
Thanks for your post.
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:53 pm
You bet. Give me the wilderness. Others can have the street.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Isn’t it wonderful how little of the wild one has access to, if we are attentive, we can lose ourselves in it. In third grade, a friend and I would move off the school playground to the grass at the edge, lie down on our bellies with hand lenses and see how many minute creatures we could find in a square foot of soil. But how disappointed we were when recess was done.
Whoever determined that by junior high we no longer needed recesses? I say that we should start a movement: Bring Back the Recess! (Don’t tell anybody, but once spring has sprung here in Michigan, I take a few recesses from my desk every week.)
March 4th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Dean, you are right about needing just a little of the wilderness to make a difference in our attitudes and feelings.
Behind our church, we own a little wooded property where we made a “prayer trail” and an outdoor worship center. Not a big deal, but those days where a trip to a bigger place, such as a mountain wilderness or even a local park would be hard to do, its a good get-away in a natural setting to take a few moments of “wilderness like” reflection and re-creation of my soul.
Have not used the square foot of soil yet, but not a bad idea.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
I have a little prayer I say:
“Thank You Lord for the Beauty of Your Holiness;
Thank You Lord for the Beauty of Your Creation.”
It never ceases to amaze me.
March 5th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I think it is significant that in Genesis 2:9 the first thing we learn about the trees of the Garden of Eden was that they were pleasing to look upon. Then it says they were good for providing food. So their beauty comes before utility. I think that should also be the way we look upon all of God’s creation. If we saw the aesthetic value of the natural world before we considered it’s practical value, we would be far more careful in our use of it.