Few people fail to be touched by a stunning photo of natural beauty or a gripping verbal description of natural events.  But that’s not enough for our souls.  To allow creation’s meaning to touch us deeply, we must experience it. Wild nature highlights our finitude, vulnerability, and our utter and complete dependence upon the creating and sustaining power of God. He becomes large; we become small.  In places where we more or less “run the show,” that order is reversed.  We are often creatures with swollen heads and shrunken hearts.

John Calvin called the natural world the “theater of God’s glory,” but it is even more than a theater; it’s a cathedral.  And awareness of the sacredness of God’s handiwork occurs only when we enter it with the right spirit.  The word “cathedral” comes from the Latin term for “chair”: cathedra.  Traditionally a cathedral is the sacred place where a church bishop has his chair of authority—his throne.  While human church leaders should have always kept us mindful of our stewardship role in the created order, too often the trappings, traditions, and troubles of men hinder our capacity to hear the “still, small voice” of God in our church buildings.

For that reason, it’s important for us to preserve and treasure the cathedral of the wild where we see that God, the ultimate authority, is clearly on the throne and where His wordless revelation can still be clearly seen and understood (Romans 1:20).  When truly attentive people enter the wild, they immediately recognize the signs that this is holy ground—a place where to them a flaming autumn maple is no less evidence of God’s miracle-working power and presence than the burning bush was to Moses.

Also important is for us to recognize that in the wilderness sanctuary we’re not alone in the impulse to worship.  God’s other creatures worship there as well.  As the prophets Isaiah and David remind us, all created things in their own nature respond to God—even trees, rivers, and mountains. (Isa. 55:12; Psa. 98:8)  This amazing truth from the Old Testament is echoed in the Revelation where all God’s creatures are seen as worshiping the One who died in order that the cosmos may be redeemed: “Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb [Jesus Christ], forever and ever!’” (Rev. 5:13)

Let this wonderful hymn, penned by the psalmist some three thousand years ago, resound in your heart whenever you worship in creation’s cathedral:

KEY SCRIPTURE:
Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He also established them forever and ever; He made a decree which shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the depths; fire and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling His word; mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying fowl; kings of the earth and all peoples; princes and all judges of the earth; both young men and maidens; old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven (Psalm 148:1-13).

 [Photos from Wikimedia Commons]

Today’s post, by WOC associate J. R. Hudberg appears on the Ambling page.  J. R. reflects on the joy of fishing and delighting in the wonderful varieties of creatures that share God’s world with us.  You can can go directly to the post by clicking on this link: Ambling.

Given the importance of water to all of life’s processes, it’s not surprising to discover how often water, water imagery, and water symbolism appear in the Bible. What surprises many, however, is the depth of understanding about the physical nature of water demonstrated by writers of the Scriptures over 2,000 years ago.

It’s commonly believed that many of the processes, like the water cycle, were not understood until the dramatic increase in scientific knowledge beginning with the Renaissance. But some of the oldest books of the Bible indicate that knowledge about the life-supporting attributes of water has been around since ancient times. Here are some of those processes mentioned at least 1,000 years before the time of Christ:

Ecological Relationships. “Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant” (Job 8:11-12).

Erosion And Dissolution. “As water wears away stones, and as torrents wash away the soil of the earth . . .” (Job 14:19). 21 Good stewardship of the creation is tied to our worship of the One who created it—and us.

Significance To Regeneration Of Plants. “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant” (Job 14:7-9).

Clouds As Water Vapor. “He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it” (Job 26:8). “With moisture He saturates the thick clouds; He scatters His bright clouds” (Job 37:11). “He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries” (Ps. 135:7).

Evaporation And Condensation. “He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man” (Job 36:27-28).

Water Cycle. “All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again” (Eccl. 1:7).

Because so many of us today live and work in places insulated and isolated from the outdoors, we tend to ignore the water-related processes going on around us, unless we are caught off guard by a sudden storm, a flash flood, or a raging blizzard. The ancients, on the other hand, had an intimacy with the natural world that compelled them to have great respect for the power the Creator demonstrated by the dynamics of water. Consider this set of questions from the book of Job intended to emphasize God’s control over nature:

KEY SCRIPTURE:
Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, or a path for the thunderbolt, to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, a wilderness in which there is no man; to satisfy the desolate waste, and cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? The waters harden like stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen (Job 38:25-30).

[NOTE:  Today's post is taken from the RBC Discovery Series booklet "Celebrating The Wonder of Water."  The booklet is one in a series of five on the wonder of creation.  These booklets are ideal for travel and trekking.  They should add to your enjoyment of the creation and help you gain a greater appreciation of the depth of the Bible's celebration of the natural world: God's good earth. Follow this link to read them online and to order them.  You can obtain them without cost.]

One of the highlights of my travels with RBC’s Day of Discovery team was the opportunity I had to visit one of the few groves of old cedars left in Lebanon: The Cedars of God.

'The Cedars of Lebanon' by Edward Lear, British. Oil, 1862.

As it is with valuable trees everywhere, our human stewardship of the biblically honored “cedars of Lebanon” has often been disgraceful. They were so valuable in ancient times that even by the time of Christ they were badly depleted. In the second century, the Roman emperor Hadrian placed a ban on cutting them—except, of course, for imperial Roman use! Reforestation has happened sporadically since that time. Modern industrial times took a great toll on them, and they were again badly depleted by the middle of the 20th century.

Lytton Musselman

Dr. Lytton Musselman, chair of the botany department of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, has assisted in some of the latest rounds of reforestation in Lebanon. As a visiting professor at American University in Beirut in 2001, Lytton was the host of our Day of Discovery crew as we did our filming of the “The Wonder of a Tree” series. He appears in the final episode. Lytton is also the host and content provider of the “Bible Plants” Website at ODU. You can find the “Bible Plants” link in the right sidebar. Four years ago—after years of research and photo collection—his book on the plants of the Bible and the Koran was published. Titled Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and the Quran, it is a great asset to me in grasping the outdoors setting of each biblical account.

Since the Bible begins with unfallen man living in a Garden and ends with the redeemed saints living in a Garden City, and since, in between, the natural world plays such an important role in the biblical narratives, I find it curious that Christians typically do not seem very interested in the natural history of the Bible lands. Because I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to visit Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan with Day of Discovery, I’m fascinated with the natural world of the Bible.

About a year ago I picked up in a used-book store a wonderful old tome by Henry Van Dyke, the author of The Other Wiseman and The First Christmas Tree. He’s also the writer of the lyrics we sing to the music of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You.” This book is a chronicle of his own trip to Israel, Jordan, and Syria in 1907, and it is titled Out-Of-Doors In the Holy Land. In the preface he expresses what I have come to feel about the importance of the natural history of the lands of the Bible:

There are two things in the book which I would not have you miss: the first is the new conviction—new at least to me—that Christianity is an out-of-doors religion. From the birth in the grotto at Bethlehem (where Joseph and Mary took refuge because there was no room for them in the inn) to the crowning death on the hill of Calvary outside the city wall, all of its important events took place out-of-doors. Except the discourse in the upper chamber at Jerusalem, all of its great words, from the sermon on the mount to the last commission to the disciples, were spoken in the open air. How shall we understand it unless we carry it under the free sky and interpret it in the companionship with nature?

I’m sure, of course, that you and I have received most of our biblical instruction indoors—in our churches, and so forth—but because I have experienced the out-of-doors in the Holy Land and can still vividly recall its vistas, smell its odors, and even savor eating “St. Peter’s fish” on a table beside the Sea of Galilee, when I read the Bible today, it relates to me in a physical as well as a spiritual manner. One does not have to visit the lands of the Bible, however, to gain that perspective. Merely picturing Jesus as walking shoulder to shoulder with you through your favorite outdoor place will go a long way toward helping you grasp the reality that your Savior is also the Creator of much of what you love.

To me the capstone of honor given by a biblical author to the natural world is that great scene in Revelation 5 where the angels, the elders, and all the earth’s living creatures praise in unison the Lamb who was slain for our sin:

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! (Revelation 5:11-13).

The day I saw my physician’s assistant was an awesome Indian Summer day. While sitting in the examination room, I took the liberty of lifting the closed blinds to look down into the blazing branches of a sugar maple that had a height exceeding that of the three-floor clinic. Almost immediately I saw a couple tiny kinglets really busy combing the branches for bugs (I could not see the male close-up so don’t know if they were golden-crowned or ruby crowned). Again I wondered just how much such creatures of God are regaled by the creation’s beauty.  I know they were looking for food, but were they also being delighted by the glory of the day—reveling in the freedom of being able to do the work God gave them to do?  Somehow I think they were, my believing that all created things in their own nature respond to their Creator.

KEY SCRIPTURE:
Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather that obey him, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds, kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children. Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven! (Psalm 148:7-13).

Musing thus, I was almost irritated that the PA didn’t make me wait more than ten minutes! When she came in, she noted that I was actually using the windows for their real purpose—looking outside. So we got to talking about the outdoors, and I told her about my work at RBC Ministries as a nature writer and about our aim to help parents and grandparents get the kids outdoors. Having five kids in her blended family, she commented on how hard it was to get them away from the TV and toys. “But,” she, said, “I’m the family outdoor Nazi. When I’m home they go out!” “Good for you,” I remarked.

I believe it’s a good goal to work at having our kids or grandkids experience the outdoors almost every day of the year. The weather outside may even be “frightful” but the kids can find it delightful. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” stays these parents and caregivers from getting their kids outdoors at least once each day! That doesn’t mean just running them from the house to the car. It means getting out and deliberately examining what’s happening in the creation. It’s important to make our children or grandchildren aware of what’s going on in the natural world every day: windy or calm, sunny or cloudy, wet or dry, hot or cold, humid or arid, where the sun and moon are, what the birds are doing, what the natural sounds and scents are. Be bold, dress the kids appropriately, and go out and experience rain, fog, snow—even blizzard-force winds (dressed for it and close to safety, of course). Sometimes in the winter, I get my warmest gear on and go sit outside in a powerful snowstorm for as long as I can take it just to feel its power and awesome glory. John Muir did this in a Sierra windstorm—trying to get the feel for what a tree experiences in a windstorm:

From a sketch by John Muir

 After cautiously casting about, I made choice of the tallest of a group of Douglas [firs] that were growing close together like a tuft of grass, no one of which seemed likely to fall unless all the rest fell with it. Though comparatively young, they were about 100 feet high, and their lithe, brushy tops were rocking and swirling in wild ecstasy. Being accustomed to climb trees in making botanical studies, I experienced no difficulty in reaching the top of this one, and never before did I enjoy so noble an exhilaration of motion. The slender tops fairly flapped and swished in the passionate torrent, bending and swirling backward and forward, round and round, tracing indescribable combinations of vertical and horizontal curves, while I clung with muscles firm braced, like a bobolink on a reed.

In its widest sweeps my tree-top described an arc of from twenty to thirty degrees, but I felt sure of its elastic temper, having seen others of the same species still more severely tried—bent almost to the ground indeed, in heavy snows—without breaking a fiber. I was therefore safe, and free to take the wind into my pulses and enjoy the excited forest from my superb outlook.

Our “Wonder Kids” page is dedicated to helping parents, grandparents, and other child care-givers ideas, links, and inspiration to get the kids outdoors.  Also in the right sidebar you will find these links to material for children: Last Child in the Woods, National Wildlife Federation Site for Kids, Children and Nature Network. Check these out; then get out there with the kids.  If there are no children in your home, go out there yourself and be a kid again!