Solomon was wiser than all the men of the east and all the sages of Egypt. He was wiser than any man, including Ethan the Ezrahite or Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He was famous in all the neighboring nations. He composed 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. He produced manuals on botany, describing every kind of plant, from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on walls. He also produced manuals on biology, describing animals, birds, insects, and fish. People from all nations came to hear Solomon’s display of wisdom; they came from all the kings of the earth who heard about his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:30-34 NET Bible)

Jersey cow

I remember as a kid being bored to death on long drives.  So my brothers and I would seek to remedy that with counting contests. To get a point you had to be the first to spot the agreed-on target and call it out: out-of-state plates, Studebakers, Jersey cows, Oliver tractors, and so forth.  You could win a round instantly, however, if you spotted what we chose to be the trumping item.  For a number of trips, it was a farmyard grindstone—which you now see mostly in antique shops.

Well, what was a long drive back in the forties and fifties is no longer a long drive.  Trips of over 2000 miles in a few days are now common for many of us—along with the potential for hours of highway boredom. But for the most part I’m not bored: I’ve been seeking to emulate King Solomon by learning as much as I can about the natural world.  So every drive is an educational experience.

Interest in God’s creation by itself is usually enough to keep me from highway boredom, but learning how to let it captivate me while racing through the landscape at 70 mph takes deliberation on my part.  I’ve set myself some goals:

 

1. Learn how to recognize tree species by their shape, color, mature size, and foliage pattern
2. Learn how to recognize birds by how they fly, by their silhouette, and by their habits and habitats
3. Learn how to recognize wildflowers by their color en mass, height, and typical habitat
4. 

   Cirrus clouds

   Learn the names and natures of the different cloud forms and what they might be telling me about the weather

5. Learn the typical farm crops of a region and what a field of each looks like in all stages of growth from sprout to harvest
6. Learn the different species of cattle, horses, and other farm animals (a skill I’m a long way from mastering!)
7. Learn invasive plants by their form, color, and habitat
8. And, critical in a state that typically has more than 60,000 car/deer collisions each year, learn where deer might be seen—especially in the few hours around dusk when they’re moving from grazing to bedding down.

With all those objectives on my mind, every drive turns into an adventure—so much of an adventure that when I trip with Marge, she’ll do the driving (“For the safety of both of us,” she’ll say).  She knows driver types, traffic patterns, and potential road hazards like the back of her hand.  To her, a Hummer is a vehicle (one she’d like to have as the closest thing to the iron car she’s always felt she needed).  To me it’s the bird I’ve been trying to entice to my feeders. This, of course, makes for interesting road conversation.  If you had a recording of our in-car commentary, you’d think we were in different worlds.  But, in the end, you’d understand that it’s the perfect combination—one that’s been in existence for forty-four years!  The result in number of highway crashes?  Zero!

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign that will endure forever (Isaiah 55:10-13).

After my godly father, church, and Sunday school, the most significant influence on my spiritual formation as a youth was Christian camps. From age nine to sixteen, I was involved with camps—first as a camper and then as a counselor. My dad was on the founding board of a Christian camp that utilized a Civilian Conservation Corps facility in Western Michigan—the first AWANA camp started by Lance Latham. Dad was on the board from 1945 until his death in 1975. I was blessed to serve with him the last few years.

The camp motto is still the same: “Where Christ is First.” Being led by godly men who had a heart for Christ, for evangelism, and the spiritual nurture of children, the camp has probably led thousands of kids to Christ and helped motivate many into ministry, missions, and lay occupations where they have continued to spread and live out the Gospel. I could go on and list many more positives about that camp and about Christian camps in general.

Yet while I don’t fault the leadership of camps then, or camps today, I have come to realize that there has been a glaring failure in Christian camping that has created attitudes and misunderstandings among adult followers of Christ that have had some significant negative consequences: the failure to use their ideal setting to teach from God’s other “book”—the book of God’s works. The natural world (especially the beautiful natural settings of most camps) is a revelation of God: what theologians call the “general revelation.” The camp I attended, “where Christ is first,” almost totally ignored the link between Christ and the creation: making us aware of what some have called the “cosmic Christ.” No doubt this was the consequence of a big hole that still exists in the spiritual formation of most evangelicals and fundamentalists—the lack of a well articulated and well taught theology of nature and the absence of what I call the lost fundamental: that we are creation’s caretakers.

Since these elements are mostly missing in Christian homes, churches, and Sunday schools, one can’t entirely fault camps for the failure to recognize their opportunity to make up for it while they have a virtually captive audience out in God’s great outdoors. The camp at the top of Lake Superior in Canada where I served as a counselor did offer a nature walk.  Dear and patient Mrs. Plunkett came once a week to  offer about an hour-long trek in the bush to whoever wanted to go, but that was it.  Only a few kids ever gave up their play time for a walk in the woods.

With all the resources now available to camps for teaching the theology of nature, for offering intensive outdoor education, and for providing instruction in biblically-based environmental ethics to children and teens, there really is little reason that such cannot be a part of the curriculum of every Christian camp ministry. Sadly, some of the largest camps that have thousands of campers over the course of the summer have mostly become “resorts” and places for the entertainment of kids. Instead of having kids learning about Christ the Creator through the creation, they have the kids mountain-biking in it, playing in it (or in huge chlorinated pools), shooting targets in it, or sitting indoors listening to highly amped bands and dynamic motivational speakers.

That a kid should leave a camp in the Sierra without knowing the difference between a Douglas fir and a Ponderosa pine or leave a camp in the Midwest without knowing the difference between white pine and a red pine is to me a shame. That they should be able to sing “all the trees of the forest shall clap their hands,” and not have a clue that the forests around them are being threatened by invasive species, over-development, and destructive harvesting is to me sad. That kids should go away from camp spiritually (emotionally?) hyped and well instructed about the Jesus who lived two millennia ago, yet not understand the facts about the living Jesus who redeemed the creation, who sustains the creation, and who will come again to restore it as an even more awesomelybeautiful place to which our souls will return and reoccupy physical bodies to enjoy the Creator forever [consider today's Scripture] is to me the greatest tragedy of all.

If you’re involved in Christian camping or send kids to camp, I encourage you to see what you can do to motivate that camp to address these vital and commonly missing elements. Every kid should leave camp every summer awed by the wonder of creation—and motivated to live a “creation careful” life the rest of the year. If the camp you are involved with does that, appreciate the blessing and thank the camp leadership.

You might want to check American Outdoor Schools directed by my friend Bob Frembling.  It is a program that brings skilled outdoor educators to both Christian and secular camps to provide excellent outdoor education that is Creator-centered.

Fall is the ideal time to teach children about nature—and about nature’s Creator.  While Christian schools can be straight-forward about referencing the Creator, most secular schools cannot.  Home-schoolers, parents, grandparents, and other care givers might want to use the following list of biblical truths as a guide to some good outdoor teaching this fall—maybe starting today! [Photo by Cali2Okie]

The Natural World:

1. It was created by God. (Gen. 1-2; John 1:3; Col. 1:16-17)

2. It is owned by God. (Psa. 24:1; 1 Cor. 10:16, Psa. 104:24)

3. It is loved by God. (Psa 145:17 NIV; Psa. 36:5)

4. It is sustained by God continuously. (Gen. 8:22; Psa. 145:17; Psa. 104, Psa. 36:5-6; Matt. 6:26; Col. 1:17)

5. It was placed under man’s dominion. (Gen. 1:28; Psa. 8:6-8, Heb. 2:8, Psa. 145:13)

6. It was assigned to man for care and servant leadership. (Gen. 2:15)

7. It was altered by sin at the Fall. (Gen. 3:14-19)

8. It was altered again by the Flood. (Gen. 8-9)

9. It provides needs for all people throughout time. (Psa. 104:13-15; Matt 6:25-24; Zech. 10:1)

10. It is considered less valuable than people. (Matt. 6:26)

11. It has been redeemed by Christ. (Rom. 8:18-23; Col. 1:20)

12. It will be restored, reconciled to God, and unified at Christ’s return. (Isa. 11:6-9; Rom. 8:18-23; Col. 1:20; Eph. 1:9-10)

13. It will be assigned its destiny by God, not man. (2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 21:1)

Implications of these biblical truths:

We do not own the earth and can never ultimately “possess” any part of it. When we buy and sell land, we are only assigning temporary care to “owners” who are expected by God to use it carefully, frugally, and justly for His glory. We should not deliberately destroy the land’s capacity to do its assigned work: to produce needed elements (fruit, oxygen, water filtration, moisture, etc.) for the health and survival of all that depend upon it. Our task is stewardship, which acknowledges that we are accountable to the Master for the creation’s health and for how we use its fruit (profit).

Since it was made by God, is sustained by God, is loved by God, and will be restored by God, we must use it with reverent care and respect. We must always be thankful for our parents and their parents for their care of it and be careful to hand it on to our children and their children as little damaged and diminished as we can.

Our worship is of the Creator, not the creation. But, we must also remember that with the astronomical wonders above we “join with all nature in manifold witness to [God's] great faithfulness, mercy, and love!” Mankind is expected to establish communities and cultures upon the earth that use the land and its produce with as little waste and destruction as possible. All creatures are made by God and must be respected as His creation. When we use the earth’s produce, we do it with gratitude and with the understanding that all His creatures, beginning with—but not limited too—mankind, have a right to occupy and make use of their allotted portion of it. As much as possible we should attempt to treat the earth now as we will be expected to treat it at its restoration in the coming Kingdom.

While “our citizenship is in heaven,” we cannot forget, as T.S. Eliot reminds us, that such citizenship “is our model and type for our citizenship below.” Children need to know that the earth we see now is not like it was at the creation (because of the Fall, the Curse, the Flood, and the ravages of time), and it is not now what it will be at the restoration (the “peaceable kingdom” of shalom). Nonetheless, we also must show them how it still demonstrates to us the power, divinity, beauty, and awesome creative nature of God. For that reason alone, we should tend faithfully to our stewardship tasks.

Motivate children to think of their use of the earth as a creative school project that will be graded by the divine Teacher at the end.  And if children offer up their creative work as art to the Heavenly Father, they can know that regardless of how imperfect and simple it is, He will post it on His fridge.

See you outdoors!

Dean

[Acorn photo by Amanda *Bake It Pretty*]

[Discover other issues and ideas related to children and the environment on the "Wonder Kids" page accessed from the top menu bar---or here.]

Almost annually since 1991 I’ve made one or two treks “up north” to the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies northeast of Kalkaska, Michigan.  Last week was my first time this year.  Perched on a wooded hillside above Louie’s Pond, the institute has been providing environmental education for some fifty years—first as a youth camp, later as a boys’ science camp, and after 1980 as a provider of college-level courses.

Au Sable’s primary mission is to supplement the curricula of Christian colleges that typically do not have enough students to support the teaching of various specialized subjects.  So students from colleges all over the country can take these often hard to find courses at Au Sable in a short May session or two longer summer sessions and receive academic credit at their own college or university.  Here’s just a sampling of courses offered this academic year: winter stream ecology, conservation biology, environmental chemistry, and watershed stewardship. Even if they can obtain a similar course on their college campus, a number of students will take their classes at Au Sable because of small class size, the availability of field studies, and the accessibility of their professors.  It’s a wonderful place—a place that has made a life-changing difference in the lives of most of those who have taken classes there.

Of course, as a former college instructor and adjunct professor, I enjoy visiting Au Sable when the students are present.  It’s always an encouragement to me to see the enthusiasm and dedication of both the students and the visiting professors—many of whom hold respected professorships in major universities in the United States and Canada.  The students would be the first to tell you that although they are housed in a beautiful setting, the courses they’re taking definitely are not what we used to call “crip courses.”

The value of the education they receive is reflected in the fact that many Au Sable students have gone on to become college professors themselves.  One of those students, Garrett Crow, has in fact come full circle.  As a student at Taylor University in 1963, he came to Au Sable Trails in the summer where he taught outdoor education to the boy campers.  He went on to gain his PhD. at Michigan State University and had a long and successful professorship at the University of New Hampshire, from which he recently retired.  This summer finds him back at Au Sable guiding graduate students in directed research projects.

The philosophy of the Au Sable Institute is one that I give a hearty “amen” to:

The board, faculty, and staff confess that God is exclusive owner of all and that human beings are trustees of that over which they have responsibility.  The task and responsibility of human beings is that of stewardship; stewardship is the responsible care and use of the Creation and all its creatures.  Stewards of the Creation must have ecological awareness and knowledge.  They must know and understand the interrelationships between living creatures and their environments.  They must know the nature and impacts of its use by human beings.  Stewards of the Creation must have knowledge and skills for acting responsibly in the sustaining, renewing, and preserving of the Creation and its rich diversity.

Also take a look at the more comprehensive overview of this philosophy found in “The Au Sable Idea.”

See you outdoors!

Dean