The Creator is here
I never understood the reassurance of nature until I lived in a place without much of it. I didn’t realize how vaguely, yet steadily, all of creation whispers like a consoling background melody carried by the wind. But there are certain aspects of nature that shout, rather than sing, God’s name.
Yesterday we returned from visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Between the geological wonders of Yellowstone and the snow-capped peaks of the Tetons, I heard one proclamation as I stared in awe: The Creator is here.
But can we hear that post-vacation, wherever we call home?
Home for my first 18 years of life was in the Adirondack Park, a six-million acre region of lakes and Pines and mountains in upstate NY. To this day, the remote town in which I was raised greets the passerby and native resident with its claim to fame proudly etched in its welcome sign: “Home of the 1964 national Christmas tree”. We’re known for our trees - or at least one of them, long ago.
I wasn’t someone who hiked the high peaks, portaged along rivers, or camped off the grid, so when I moved to a city of concrete high rises and asphalt streets, the absence of nature wasn’t a concern.
Until it was.
Gone were the landscape views I took for granted, and in their place, engineered structures and pavement. The question I dared not ask, plagued me when I walked the streets: Is God less present in this place? At first, I wasn’t sure why I wondered such a thing. But then I found myself religiously catching the sunrise from our fifth story apartment, just to hear it speak. I craved nature, not solely for its beauty, but for its signature message, The Creator is here.
Scripture writers are not subtle when they point to creation as being descriptive of God, and they paint the most vivid imagery of Him through vast, expansive elements, such as mountains, seas, and sky. Mountains, dominating and immovable, melt like wax when the Creator reaches down to touch them. Seas, deep and unsearchable, are restrained by His hand to be contained when they surge. The sky, distant yet visible, He stretched out to declare His immeasurable character.
You might feel like the Creator is not where you are, surrounded by conifers or concrete, deserts or suburbs. You may be a thousand miles from the ocean or about that far from mountains, but one vast element of creation reaches where others do not and cannot be eliminated by man-made structures.
Start looking up. The sky is speaking. For more, see Psalm 19.
