Praise the LORD from the earth, . . . Mountains and all hills: Fruit trees and all cedars. (Psalm 148:7 & 9)
I’ve found that I have good company in my love for the creation: Colonial theologian Jonathan Edwards is considered to be America’s first true intellectual. While Edwards studied the Word of God with great fervency, he also studied almost as intensely the works of God in the creation. As a preacher and an avid naturalist, Edwards explained the meaning of the creation with these words:
“When we are delighted with flowery meadows and gentle breezes of wind, we may consider that we see only the emanations of the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ. When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see His love and purity. So the green trees and fields, and singing of birds are the emanations of His infinite joy and benignity [kindness, graciousness]. The easiness and naturalness of trees and vines are shadows of His beauty and loveliness. The crystal rivers and murmuring streams are the footsteps of His favor, grace, and beauty” (Observations, p.94).
In commenting on Psalm148:9, the great English preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote:
Fruit trees and forest trees, trees deciduous or evergreen, are equally full of benevolent design,and alike subserve some purpose of love; therefore, for all and by all, let the great Designer be praised. There are many species of cedar, but they all reveal the wisdom of their Maker. When kings fell them,that they may make beams for their palaces,they do but confess their obligation to the King of trees, and to the King of kings, whose trees they are. Varieties in the landscape are produced by the rising and falling of the soil, and by the many kinds of trees which adorn the land. Let all, and all alike, glorify their one Lord. When the trees clap their hands in the wind,or their leaves rustle in the gentle breath of Zephyr, they do to their best ability sing out unto the Lord (The Treasury Of David).
Would it be unthinkable to imagine these great men of God dropping to their knees if they had had the privilege of entering an awe-inspiring old-growth forest on America’s West Coast? They were as far as you can get away from pantheism, but they would no doubt have felt as I do that some of the greatest “cathedrals” in the world can be found in wilderness areas far from great cities where grand church spires point to the heavens.
As in ancient times, many today fail to distinguish between the tree and the tree’s Creator. Towering firs, cedars, redwoods, eucalyptuses (or eucalypti!) are not part of God—that’s a pagan, pantheistic belief. Trees were not made to be worshiped—as did the Druids—but they do help us in our worship. 
When we walk into a forest, we are properly awed to be surrounded by all the other creatures God loves, cares for, and rejoices in. And they in turn praise Him merely by doing what He made them to do. Wherever His work is being faithfully carried out by His living creatures, wherever trees honor the Creator in whatever mysterious way they “clap their hands,” there is indeed a cathedral. If when entering a forest you recognize its trees as fellow worshipers, it has to lift your own spirit in praise.
How long has it been since you have identified with the writer of lyrics to “How Great Thou Art”:
When through the woods
And forest glades I wander
I hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees;When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze;Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art![Hear Sandi Patty sing it on YouTube. Grab a Kleenex and crank up the speakers!]
[Photos taken in coastal California and Washington. Click on the photos to see them larger.]
I was doing a search of old files on my computer this morning, and “accidentally” came across a “psalm of lament” I wrote when I was in the throes of a distressing mid-life crisis. I had deliberately looked for the paper months ago and could find it nowhere—not even in my hard-copy files.
My heart cries within me to see my children—to look upon the beautiful little [newborn son] you gave me and not be filled with delight. I weep instead of laugh. I long so desperately for contentment to return.
Others tell me that I could be facing my “mid-life transition” with all its complexities concerning adjustment to the middle years. But, Father, I have always trusted you in the past to bring me through the trying times—and consciously I see no real crisis in my life. I have not dreaded growing old. I have always lived a day at a time with no great concern over either the present or the future.
But more than anything else, Father, I want to be in the center of your will—even if I must go on and on in this state of spiritual and emotional turmoil. I do not question your righteous judgment; I only question myself in the absence of any clear word from you. Do I continue to seek help from others, or is it something I must face alone with you?
In keeping with those statements, I often use the phrase “creation care” when writing for this website. It’s a term whose currency parallels my own development as an advocate for good stewardship of the natural world—God’s gift of a wonderful and fruitful creation. In the past within the church when the pastor preached his annual “stewardship sermon,” it was typically at the urging of the deacons’ to preach to the congregation about digging deeper into the wallet so the staff can get paid and the property and buildings be properly maintained. [image 
However, because “stewardship” has for decades been applied primarily to money, those who saw the broader picture searched for a different and more inclusive term. One clever and catchy term suggested in the late seventies was “good earthkeeping,” playing, of course, on the popularity of Good Housekeeping magazine. A seminal book on our responsibility to care for creation was published under the title Earthkeeping in 1980, and a 
“On the basis of the fact that there is going to be total redemption in the future, not only of man but of all creation, the Christian who believes the Bible should be the man who—with God’s help and in the power of the Holy Spirit—is treating nature now in the direction of the way nature will be then. It will not now be perfect, but it must be substantial, or we have missed our calling. God’s calling to the Christian now, and to the Christian community, in the area of nature—just as it is in the area of personal Christian living in true spirituality—is that we should exhibit a substantial healing here and now, between man and nature and nature and itself, as far as Christians can bring it to pass” (pp. 68-9, Tyndale House Publishers).
Christians see the world as God’s creation, which we are called upon to “tend.” This insight compels us to treat the natural world with respect, care and concern. The breath-catching sense of wonder that we experience on encountering nature at its best is itself the symbol or sign of the deep significance of creation, which, when rightly interpreted, invites us to appreciate, honour and respect it. This is not an idea invented to meet the needs of the moment, or a highly selective reading of a religious tradition designed to extract only those notions that happen to meet with contemporary cultural [approval]. It is simply an application of a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith to the issues we now face.
So my conclusion is that exposing ourselves to and being sensitive to the beauty of the creation is in large part a spiritual endeavor that will draw us toward our Creator. It’s a spiritually fruitful practice that we moderns perform much too rarely. Seeing beauty and recognizing goodness is at the heart of proper worship—no doubt the reason that worship sanctuaries for centuries have sought to reflect in their design, their art, in their master craftsmanship, and in their stained glass the goodness and beauty of the creation. 
Henry David Thoreau recommends that we do the same with our homes: “Let our houses first be lined with beauty, where they come into contact with our loves—like the [inside] of shellfish—and not overlaid with it.”
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