God's Longest Speech to Humanity (Part 2)

This is a continuation, more or less, of the importance of God's longest speech to humanity, as begun in the previous post. 

Jesus was an outdoors kind of guy. He does visit the synagogues and teaches in them from time to time, of course, but he spends a lot of time outdoors, teaching from the mountains and along the river and lake fronts.

  

 And when he needs to pray to his father, he goes to the mountains. To know and wonder at God’s creation gives us opportunity to know him and become more and more aware of his perfect love for us.

As I mentioned in my previous post, God is a nature lover, and to spend time with Him in His creation is so joyful and uplifting! I often prefer to explore God’s creation more or less on my own and at my own pace, rather than with others who have a different purpose such as to get a list of things. No question I fully enjoy getting out to see such diversity, and hopefully capturing parts of nature with my camera to share in various ways. But sometimes when I am out on my own, my heart will burst into songs of praise (quietly, I should add :-) such as How Great Thou Art.

I have been fortunate my entire life, to explore so many of God’s fabulous habitat creations throughout North America and even Central America. For example:

 -the lush Carolinian Forest and related habitats at Rondeau;

 -the sub-arctic lowlands along the Hudson Bay coast;

 -the extensive grasslands of the prairie provinces;

-the wonderful tallgrass prairies of the mid-western USA;

 -the deserts of Arizona and Texas;

 -the impressive coastal redwoods of northern California and Oregon;

-the Rocky mountains of Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado and elsewhere;

   -the cloud forests of Costa Rica;

 -the Appalachian mountains of the eastern USA;

 -and more. Most of these places were ones that both Marie and I enjoyed so, so much, visiting them more than once.

 No question that the diversity and beauty of these areas are incredible, and of course there are so many other places across the globe that are equally as impressive. As much as I would like to see them in my earthly life, I also don’t want to contribute to the impacts of global transportation in doing so, especially when I know that in my heavenly life, I will have eternity to explore the wondrous beauty of the heavenly realm which probably includes multi-dimensions above and beyond what we can experience or even imagine here on earth.

 In reading about what many people who have had a near death experience and have gotten to a part of the heavenly realm, have described the beauty of that heavenly dimension which is so wondrous and impressive to the point that the human language cannot even begin to adequately describe its beauty. And that isn’t surprising, since that is God’s perfect realm, whereas the globe on which we live is far less perfect due to the way we have abused it, and the devil has likely had his hands in attacking these parts of God’s creation.

 We don’t need more wonders to examine across the globe, we just need a greater sense of wonderment with what is around us. We can look on the lawns of a nearby park, and watch a robin using the gifts God has given it to hunt successfully for worms on which to feed itself or its young. 

 We can watch the squirrels interact with each other in play, or watch them build a winter’s nest in a tree growing up in the yard in which to survive the wintry elements and have a safe place to give birth to their young. Or we can watch out the window and enjoy the beauty of a sunrise or a sunset, or a multitude of stars in the heavens. Or we can sit out in the back yard with a morning coffee, and watch a colourful moth come in to sip the nectar from a flower, as I did last July.

 If we take even a few moments to consider the magnificence, wonder, beauty and complexity of the world of nature around us which is God’s creation, just remember that it is a mere hint of the love, complexity and magnificence of the Creator Himself! Hallelujah!

We can do what the psalmist says in Ps. 23, to 'lie down in green pastures, beside still waters' and there we can discover God more intimately.

I like a quote from George Washington Carver, where he says: Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God. 

and from Sleeth: We cannot love what we do not know. Get to know God's creation and you will become a friend of God.'

 

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God's longest speech to humanity (part 1)

 One could say that the entire Bible, as it is God’s Word, is His longest speech to us. Certainly it is inspired by God to humans, it was written by humans, in response to a multitude of events regarding the history of the Israelites, and those of the early church via the apostles. The reality is, that His longest actual recorded speech to humanity is in the book of Job, especially chapters 38-42. And it is clear that the primary emphasis is on His creation!

In all of the messages given in church services, etc., there is precious little that discusses God’s creation. There is, of course, lots of great information on how to live, how to honour God, what the greatest commandment is, etc., but so very little on His actual creation.

Why is that?

It’s almost as if God’s longest speech doesn’t account for much. Yet His word in these chapters in Job, as well as many verses in the Psalms and elsewhere, focus very much on God’s creation. In paying attention to verses and chapters such as these, they are giving us a very definite focus on His majesty and glory, which is as it should be.

An excellent book I have read through a couple of times is called The Gospel According to the Earth, by Dr. Mathew Sleeth. One of the more interesting chapters, at least to me, is entitled God the Creator. Dr. Sleeth and I are definitely on the same page on this topic! I have drawn on some of his information to come up with this post.

If we paid attention to what God is saying in Job, we should pay more attention to birds, forests, stars, etc.

Prothonotary Warbler

Rich Beech/Maple Forest

Dark Sky Preserve, Grasslands National Park

After Job’s friends were chastising him for something that he, at least in their minds, must have done wrong to have so many things he lost or had to contend with regarding his health, and blaming God for it, God’s response to Job and his friends are questions like “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? The morning stars sang together; He made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness; He prescribed bounds for the oceans and said Thus far you shall come and no farther, and here your proud waves be stopped.” Job 38: 7-11

 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Job 38: 37 

Do you know when the doe bears her fawn; their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds Job 39:1, 4

 Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wing toward the south? Job 39:26

  Does the eagle soar at your command. Job 39:27 

Everything under heaven belongs to me. Job 41:11

God is a nature lover, and to get closer to Him, we need to be a nature lover and worship Him especially while being out in His creation! And as we spend more time being in awe of His beautiful, complex, magnificent creation, we would become more humble regarding who He is, and far more grateful when we praise Him. When we know about how much He loves sparrows and the lilies of the field....

 

 ...it should indicate to us how much He values and loves us. And He wants us to learn from His creation. If we want to know more about Him, we should take Job 12: 7-10 to heart.

 But instead, we are ‘too busy’ with so many other things that we have allowed to dominate much of our lives. Therefore we should pay more attention to the following:

Our hearts definitely grow more grateful when we praise God’s creation, as stated in Ps 148: 3-6:

"Praise Him sun and moon, praise Him all you shining stars, praise Him you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He set them in place forever and ever."

Praise the Lord!!! 

 

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