Marge likes to tell the story of an episode from our first year of marriage.  (Of course those early years are the ones in which you learn lots of  things about your spouse you never knew!).  As she tells it, she was coming home from work and walking up the stairwell to our apartment and detected the distinct odor of root beer.  It got stronger as she approached our door.  When she opened it, she was accosted both by the overwhelming smell of root beer and a steamy kitchen where a large pot containing tree roots was simmering on the stove.  For some reason she felt she needed an explanation (something she has needed less and less in subsequent years—settling instead for the rolling of her eyes or the slow shaking of her head).  There was that “what have I gotten myself into” trepidation in her eyes.

“Sassafras tea, Babes!

Would you like to try it?”

Not particularly comfortable with foraged wild plants, Marge offered a quick “No, thank you”—an answer I have frequently heard to such offers over the past 42 years.  But there are a few things she has enjoyed, like battered and deep fried red clover-head or milkweed blossom fritters, potato and wild leek soup, puffball mushroom tempura, and boiled and salted day lily buds.

While there are indeed a number of good foods in the wild, there are many more plants that are inedible but provide wonderful fragrances.  To me the most delightful perfume of the woods is balsam fir pitch.  Young balsam fir trees have little blisters on their bark that are filled with clear pitch.  As a camp counselor in Northern Ontario as a teenager, I would frequently pop a few of the blisters and collect the pitch on a small stick so my charges could smell it—and “accidentally” get some stuck on their noses.  (Can’t help it; my dad was a tease).

My walks in the wild almost always provide me with olfactory delights: wintergreen from both the wintergreen berry and a fresh broken twig from a yellow birch, mint from peppermint, spearmint, and catnip, and root beer from sassafras roots.  Then there are pleasant odors from plants that are not typically used for culinary purposes: crushed juniper needles (though juniper berries are used to flavor gin), pine needles and pitch warmed by the sun, wild bergamot, and then all the blossoms in the spring: apple, crabapple, hawthorn, choke cherry (very pungent), and the elusive but awesome fragrance wafting through the woods from a patch of wild violets.

Almost all regions have their unique outdoor fragrances.  The one that says “desert” to me is the foliage of the creosote bush common to the Mojave Desert biome of Southern California and parts of Arizona.  If you have stood near a telephone or power pole on a hot summer day, you would likely have been accosted by a strong tarry odor—a different sort of creosote preservative that makes the bottom of the poles sticky and blackish.

Even though I would not classify the creosote odor as “fragrant,” it does evoke memories of several wonderful jaunts to the desert with my boys when they were younger.  And it’s for that reason that I keep a pomander full of creosote blossoms and foliage in my drawer.  Every once in a while I will pull it out, give it a sniff, and let myself be transported back to those pleasant times.  Apparently because of the short route from the nose to the brain and because of the importance of smell to survival, odors bring back memories quicker than any of our senses.

If you have not learned the fragrances of your nearby wild areas, why not determine this spring and summer to take a few olfactory adventures outdoors.  It’s just one more way for you to become a bit more intimate with God’s great and good creation.

See you outdoors!

Dean

Today is one of those necessary ugly days of transition from winter to spring in the North Country: rain and snow mixed in chilled air just above freezing and covered over by deep and dark overcast.  At ground level it’s not much better.  There almost everything comes in shades of brown and gray—with only evergreens providing somewhat somber visual relief.  I believe it was Walt Whitman who described such conditions with the right word: cheerless.

Such cheerlessness is further intensified as you travel the spring roads.  Car-slain deer carcasses not long ago hidden beneath shrouds of white are thrusting up their broken ribs as flags for carrion-hungry crows, ravens, and vultures.  Added to this are the scattered bodies of raccoons, opossum, skunks, and other creatures that have never gained understanding, as have the crows and ravens, of the physics of speeding automobiles.  Coming home from my ailing sister’s bedside last Sunday, we saw the crushed forms of three skunks in less than one country mile.

My old orchard is still brown and gray as well, with here and there a few bright spots of brilliant red provided by clusters of high bush cranberries shriveled and ready to be pushed off their stems by the pressure of sap called up from the roots by increased sunlight and warmth.  Because of the normal early spring drabness of the orchard, my eyes were captured the other day by a spot of shocking yellow.  Another bit of litter must have been blown into this little patch of wild that I treasure; so I walked over to remove the offense—and was blessed to discover what I had not seen there before: a cluster of crocuses. They looked like a tiny chunk of sun fallen through the clouds to remind me of the glory of rebirth soon to fill this spot.

As the first blooms of spring, crocuses are hope flowers.  They symbolize that wonderful passage from Romans 8.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.  In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:18-28).

I highlighted two important recurring words in this passage: hope and groan.  This is the wonder of the “whole Gospel.”  Nature groans in its present circumstances—groaning often caused by mankind.  We groan too—in pain and in the realization that until Jesus returns, we will suffer unto death.  And the Holy Spirit groans.

Understandable isn’t it.  What we know from the second verse in the Bible is that the Spirit is the One who oversees and provides life.  Life is the Spirit’s everlasting work.  Yet on this earth now, the Spirit hovers over death in all its forms.  So the Spirit groans with and for us in our pain and our dying.  And I believe the Spirit groans with the suffering of creation—suffering set before our own eyes almost daily in the form of crushed roadkill.

Yet within this cheerless setting is the bright Sonlight of hope: the wonderful realization that the pain of nature is not meaningless pain.  Creation’s pain is pregnant pain! At its completion comes both birth and rebirth.

So for the present follower of Christ and all who will come to know Him in the future, there is not one dismal and cheerless day that will not have a crocus of hope in it.  Our suffering will cease, not only with our soul’s eventual flight to the arms of Jesus, but also when our bodies are reunited with our souls and we again experience wonderful material life from the Spirit and share it in inexpressible joy with the reborn, refreshed, renewed creation that now groans—yet groans always in hope.

See you outdoors!

Dean

Change in the Works for WOC

Change in the Works for WOC

WonderOfCreation.org is, of course, a new venture for RBC.  We are now in our sixth month and have gathered a good many statistics to help us make decisions about its direction.  We have had over 13,000 visitors since it began the first of October.  Because of the high number of visitors and visits, if you put the two words “wonder” and “creation” in a Google search, WOC comes out on the top after the searcher scans nearly 16 million finds.  It is on top at Yahoo also–after searching a staggering number of finds: 248,000,000!  That’s clearly the place we want to hold.

Nonetheless, we have discovered that the blog format does not seem to be the best way to serve the people we want to reach, and may in some ways be a hindrance to getting the biblical view of God, man, and nature out to as broad an audience as possible.   So we have made the decision to alter WOC from a blog to a “resource center,” which will be laid out more like a traditional website.

We hope to have this transition made by June.  Right now we are planning to have these category choices laid out across the top of the entry page:  Creation Pictures, Creation Quotations, and Wonder Kids will stay.  New categories being planned are Care of Creation, Theology of Nature, Missionary Earthkeeping, and Church Resources.

The “article” on the entry page will change about three times a week and will be broadened to direct visitors to the various resources on the site.  Whether or not we will have a blog feature is still to be determined.  Nonetheless, in each category there will still be the opportunity for visitors to make comments.  Because of the new categories and a lot more information, we expect more comments than we are receiving now.

And comments we do want—especially on this new approach.  So please feel free to let us know what you think of this new direction, and do make suggestions.  Now is your opportunity to help form the direction and future of WonderOfCreation.org.

Seminars On the Theology of Nature

Seminars On the Theology of Nature

WonderOfCreation.org host and feature writer, Dean Ohlman, is available to offer seminars and informal talks to churches, colleges, Sunday School classes, and other small groups on a number of different issues related to the theology of nature and the biblical worldview that includes the mandate for Christians to be “good earthkeepers.”  Dean can be reached directly by phone at 616.974.2726 if you’d like to have him speak in your church or small group.

Creation Care Concerns Continue to Rise in Conservative Circles

Creation Care Concerns Continue to Rise in Conservative Circles

The magazine from Dallas Theological Seminary, Kindred Spirit, recently made caring for creation its theme.  Its cover title:  “Should Christians Be Environmentalists?”  In the introductory comments by DTS president Mark Bailey was this excellent list of what the Bible says we observe about God from nature:

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God’s wisdom. When Job objected to his trials, what did God use to silence him? The revelation of His wisdom seen through creation (Job 38:1-7).
God’s righteousness. The psalmist wrote, “The heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge” (Ps. 50:6).
God’s grace. Jesus reminded His listeners that God’s creative act of bringing rain demonstrates His grace to the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:44-45).
God’s care. Jesus also pointed to creation to demonstrate God’s care, saying that not one sparrow falls outside of the Father’s knowledge (Matt. 6:28-32).
God’s invisible attributes. In asserting-through inspiration of the Holy Spirit-that all humans stand accountable to God, Paul looked to creation, which reveals God’s invisible attributes of eternal power and divine nature (Rom. 1:18-20).

In its feature article, “The Call to Care,” were these significant statements that echo the message WonderOfCreation.org has been seeking to get across:

Sometimes our practices fail to line up with our theology. At the first mention of environmental issues, many Christians become entangled in debate about the causes and cures of global warming and their political ramifications. Yet our biblical environmentalism is much broader than global warming. Think of endangered species, pollutants such as mercury poisoning, dirty air that makes our kids wheeze, poverty and its effect on environmental choices, the consequences of ignorance and greed. If we belittle environmental concerns as merely the province of political propaganda, we shirk our God-given responsibility. And we fail to engage the culture where we have some common ground.

Though some Christian leaders have warned that environmentalism distracts the church from preaching the gospel, such thinking suggests an either/or mentality. Obedience to our stewardship mandate is not only the right thing to do; it also gives Christ-followers more credibility when we do speak. Consider the Wiccan who wept when a Christian came to one of her pro-earth events and read Psalm 8. She had no idea the Bible had anything good to say about the creation she values so much.

People across the globe are growing in their awareness of environmental issues. And as followers of Christ we must contribute to that conversation. We can begin by acknowledging our failures and then demonstrating the depth of our repentance by embracing the truth—with all its ramifications—that God has called humanity to have dominion over the earth. We must work together to subdue God’s groaning earth, caring for it as best we can, managing what isn’t ours until the One who is coming soon makes all things new.

You can access the entire issue online here.

New Creation Care Organization

New Creation Care Organization

Flourish is a new organization that seeks to be a catalyst for creation care among churches and families.  Flourish recognizes environmental stewardship as an expression of our love for God and a celebration of the bountiful world in which he has placed us.

Thousands of churches in America are looking for teaching on the care for God’s creation that is biblically sound and that can fit into the programs and priorities of the local church.  To help address this need, the organization is focusing on three initial areas of ministry:

• Providing resources such as Flourish magazine (online and print), Bible studies and group guides, and other how-to materials for churches and families.
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• Working with local churches and partner ministries to help mission teams, youth groups and other church groups to engage in U.S. and international projects that integrate creation care with ministries of evangelism, compassion, missions, and community service.
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• Helping churches to audit their use of energy and to analyze their impact on local environments, and to guide churches in their implementation of cost-saving and creation-sensitive energy stewardship projects.

Together with churches, families, and partner ministries, Flourish is hoping to build a Christian environmental stewardship movement that it is focused on both lives and landscapes, depoliticized, integrated with other ministries of the church, and meeting the challenges of rural, suburban, and urban environments.

You can learn more about Flourish here.   In particular take note of its upcoming national church leaders conference.

In a world of constant change—politics, economics, decay, jobs, cultural shift, hardware, software, means of communication—I HAVE to go outdoors.  My point-seven-two walk to and from work provides me at least a small daily dose: of staying in touch with what is unchanging.  While change does happen in the natural world—especially in the north where all four seasons are dramatically different from each other—this change is expected, regular, normal, and older than humanity.  My soul craves such orderly constancy—constancy that has absolutely nothing to do with me.

Skunk cabbages, marsh marigolds, and jacks-in-the-pulpit unfold in that order at the marsh verges after the winter thaw every year.  Crows steal songbird eggs, gang up, and harass owls and hawks every year.  Song sparrows sit on bush tops and celebrate life every nesting season. Robins, cedar waxwings, and starlings compete for old crabapples every spring.  Cicadas brreeee and katydids skritch every waning summer.  Sugar maples and sumacs flame every fall.  Snow turns my landscape into light every winter.  Year after year after year.

And all of this occurs regardless of—what happens on Wall Street, who is in the White House, when TV goes digital, who has been born and who has died, my having a camera with enough pixels to show up nicely on screen and in print, whether Osama bin Laden has been terminated, or whether I chose to have my molars crowned or pulled.

In the natural world, if I and my neighbors have not messed it up too badly, I can forget the vicissitudes of my life, and find both confidence and hope in the constancy of earth’s life as promised long ago by our Creator: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:22).

I, you, and our children need to deliberately spend time outdoors if for no other reason—as Henry David Thoreau said—than to “not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails.”

See you outdoors,

Dean

When I left for Northern Ontario a week ago, it was unusually cold.  And by the time I was a hundred miles into my five-hundred-mile trip, it was snowing.  Yet some bird signs of spring were there: mostly male red-winged blackbirds already at their post over their chosen nesting sites—and looking a bit harried by winds that were throwing single-digit wind chills at them.  The stiff winds also made the four-mile drive over the Mackinac Bridge a bit of an adventure.

Here and there a few geese and ducks had already separated from their migratory flocks into pairs—or even flying alone looking for a mate.  These lone waterfowl were certainly drakes or ganders, since the females are definitely NOT alone at this time of the year!  Not a single robin was yet to be seen

But, man, what a difference the big weekend warm-up made!  The most obvious spring bird sign along the still snowy verges of the northern highways on my way home was hungry crows and ravens who were feasting on the carcasses of deer and other road kill the warm-up was gradually revealing and thawing.  Deer that had survived the heavy snow and the hunting season were converging in large herds on fields of emerging corn stubble and meadow grasses.

By the time Tuesday morning came around it seemed as though spring was “busting out all over.”  Robins were already working the lawns in spite of the fact that the worms were still several inches below the surface struggling to get up through the recently frozen sod.  A row of crabapple trees was being relieved of its old fruit by a large flock of cedar waxwings and a lone male bluebird was heading into the old orchard to pick out one of its many nest holes.

In fact, some of the gnarly old apple trees have been incorporated into the landscape of a golf course and a couple commercial buildings.  So the country club is amiably shared in spring and summer by golfers and bluebirds.  In the fall, however, the sharing is not as amiable: dozens of geese, many of them newly matured goslings, grazing on the grass, pecking at fallen apples, and creating unplanned golfing hazards.

This morning, though chilly again, the birds were still active—especially the male cardinals singing and bragging on the tree tops or chasing each other around and through the bushes and shrubbery.  And the robins too are staking their nesting claims in the orchard, which will be a virtual bird nursery in another month: brown thrashers, goldfinches, yellow warblers, chickadees, mourning doves, song sparrows, cardinals, and robins.

I will be sorry when this tiny urban “wilderness” is finally sold off and developed.

See you outdoors!

Dean