"To Him be glory forever": nature

Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Geology, theology and glory

On vacation this week we spent a day at the Grand Canyon. It is the second time my wife and I have been here and the first time our youngest daughter has seen it.

Before our earlier trip I had told my wife that I had seen the canyon from the air, being roughly 25,00 feet above it. She said I had to see it up close. And she was right. The canyon is vast in its dimensions. It is long. It is wide. It is deep. And it is beautiful

Geologists teach that the canyon itself is roughly 5 million years old. As we climbed down into it we went through layers of rock that were laid down 285 million years ago. This week marked 38 years since I joined the Navy. I can grasp 38 years. 285 million years is much too large of a number for me to wrestle with. It is large. It is gargantuan. And ultimately it is unimaginable to grasp in a meaningful way.

On one of the displays we saw in a museum at the canyon, the processes that created it were put into a rough mathematical formula. When water meets rock, given sufficient time, water always prevails.

And that is what people see at the Grand Canyon. Water working on rock, day-by-day, year-by-year. It is a process that continues today, deepening the canyon by the thickness of a single sheet of paper each year.

Theologians, depending on their persuasion, would have a different take on the creation of the canyon. Some would have no problem in accepting the geologist's account of the canyon's creation. Others would beg to differ. Just last week I read a an account where a Bishop Ussher, in Ireland during the 17th century, dated the earth's creation to a precise day approximately 6,000 years ago. Using his date of creation, then how does something that appears to be so old come into being if the age of the earth is, relatively speaking, so young? The answer is that it is because God made it that way.

For a person who believes that the world came into existence through the action of God, then it is no stretch of the imagination to believe that God, who created the world, could have created all manner of things within it, making it to look however he thought best, no matter what the working of logic on our minds may think of the results. God, after all, is God, and he possesses the freedom to act, in all situations, in whichever way suits his purposes.

Geology and theology can differ on their understandings of many things, the Grand Canyon being just one example. My understanding of science is not developed enough to fully grasp the geologists arguments on the age of the earth and the processes of creation.

And while I have a deep interest in theology, particularly it's systematic and biblical branches, I study them to nurture my ability to apply theology pastorally. I want to bring theology to the real-life situations of the people I preach to on Sunday. The people I visit in the hospital and nursing homes. The people I pray with in the community.

And in that regard the Grand Canyon, however it was created, is evidence of the glory and majesty of God. For me it brings to life the words of Paul, in Romans 1:20, where he writes:

"For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made."

The Grand Canyon also brings to life the words of the Psalmist, from Psalm 19:1:

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."

Not just the heavens, but also the ground below proclaims his handiwork. To my eyes the Grand Canyon clearly proclaims the handiwork of God. I don't know if it is 5 million years old, or 6 thousand years old. What I do know is that ultimately it is the creation of a loving and holy God.

It is a work of beauty that is virtually beyond my ability to comprehend. Which leaves me with only one fitting response. Glory.

Glory to God in the highest, for his beauty and majesty in creation.

And glory to God in the highest, for being a God who could create something so wonderful as the Grand Canyon, and yet also be so generous to me, who is so insignificant in terms of time and space. For he has given me salvation, a most precious gift from his Son, my Savior, Christ Jesus.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Geese and God’s glory

I was driving home from work this evening and glanced up at the sky as a small group of geese flew overhead. We see geese year-round, with particularly large numbers of them in the fall. There were 6 or 7 in this group, flying in an unbalanced V formation, drifting a bit this way and that as they moved across the sky.

What they were doing was, in its own way, perfect. They were moving the way they were designed to. Geese seldom fly alone. Sometimes there are just two of them and other times they are in much larger groups. They don’t fly side-by-side but always with one goose leading and the others occupying the slipstream. It is the way they fly in Rochester, where we live, if they are just going a few miles out to feed and then returning for the evening. And it is the way they fly when they leave Rochester for their wintering ground in southern Illinois, a distance of nearly 600 miles, which I understand they may cover in one day.

And looking at geese, flying in the way they were designed to, something which, as they do it is perfect, pointed me towards God, who is perfect in each and every one of His characteristics. Psalm 19 opens with these words:

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

This evening, for me, it was a flock of geese that pointed towards God and His perfect glory. How and where is God making Himself known to you today?

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

God’s glory at home

“Shout for joy, all the earth;

sing the glory of his name;

give to him glorious praise!”

Those words are the first verses of Psalm 66. Today, with the weather forecast strongly suggesting that today was the last summer-like day of the year, reading those words reminds me of the particular beauty we have seen in this place that has been our home the past six months.

We are in a house that is 120 years old in some parts. It sits on nearly 6 acres of land, adjacent to a freeway. There is one standing barn, one collapsed barn, a building for Robin’s glass shop, a garage and several sheds. We are renting, and between our stuff and our landlord’s stuff, the cars have to park outdoors.

There is a U-shaped driveway lined with a variety of crab apple trees, trees that bloomed wonderfully shortly after we moved in. There are a lot of other trees. One is a tree the kids have frequently climbed in and there are two more that we hung swings in. Others drop sticks, large and small, whenever the weather turns sour.

All year we have seen large numbers of rabbits and squirrels. There is a woodchuck, and also several raccoons. An adult cat has frequently passed through. She must have been pregnant, because one month ago our daughter found a baby kitten that we have taken in. Two of the kitten’s siblings were briefly seen last week. They were pretty skittish and we don’t need another inside cat. We’ve seen mice near the house and the outside kittens seemed to be getting along okay. As the fruit on the crabapple trees has matured, and fell, deer have been much more frequent in the front yard.

Yesterday Robin saw, and blogged, about the amazing presence of God as she was outside before sunrise for the first time since July.

And all of this is just outside our door, next to a freeway, well within the city limits.

When we sold our house and moved to our present location it was to be a temporary stop for us, and it still is. We expected things to be different from our home of 19 years, and they certainly have been. In six months we have acquired a lot of stories. We have coped with, and adapted to, many things that we never could have imagined.

One thing we didn’t expect was the sheer diversity of nature in this one small place. Diversity that, with rare exceptions, has been delightful. And as summer gives way to fall it is right for us to join the psalmist and praise God, who once again has surrounded us with His presence. An earthly glimpse of beauty that points us to His eternal Glory.