Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11) -King James Version.

Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God! Take the glory! the honor! the power! You created it all; It was created because you wanted it.  -The Message.

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. –New International Version

One of my fond memories is a trip I took with our youngest son, David, when he was in junior high. We lived in Fullerton CA at the time; so we made a canyon loop that included the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and Kodachrome Basin and Bryce Canyon in Utah.  When we got to Kodachrome Basin and looked on the park event bulletin board we saw that we could take a trail ride with a local wrangler around the shallow, but fascinating, canyon in the morning.  This we did.

The ride became a highlight for us.  It included just Bob, the wrangler, Dave and I, and a small family represented by three generations: grandpa, the parents, and two kids—plus some well-behaved horses.  It turned out that grandpa was a joker, and he enjoyed repartee with Bob, who was doing a great job telling us about the natural history of the place—in particular the strange narrow spires that stood up like ancient, fossilized tree stumps.  They were apparently geyser holes that eventually filled with mineral deposits.  When the surrounding and softer rock and soil eroded away, the geyser “holes” had become tower casts and were now one of the canyon’s great attractions. And grandpa’s joking and continual questioning about these and everything else tested Bob’s knowledge and patience to the max.

Bob was soon commenting on about everything he could.  One feature he pointed out was what he called corral grass: a ring of grass so dense that it kept other plants from encroaching on its enclosed bare circle, which then became the exclusive watershed for each particular clump.  Here grandpa had to quip again: “That’s nice, but what’s it good for?”  Well Bob could not come up with a human utility for it, so he didn’t reply and just directed us on to the next feature.  But I could sense that he was getting his fill of grandpa—as were Dave and I.

Later I thought back on grandpa’s question and its implication.  It was definitely a question engendered by so-called Enlightenment thinking—thinking that even Christians came to adopt especially as the West entered the Industrial Revolution: nature’s value is in what it can practically provide to humankind.  And it’s that thinking that’s done a lot of damage to God’s good creation:  If we don’t see any direct benefit to a natural feature, we don’t value, preserve, and protect it.  That’s one of the reasons we call much of God’s creation “natural resources”: resources for man’s use and profit.  The implication left by that designation is that everything else is pretty much useless.

However, if we consider the King James rendition of Revelation 4:11, the English biblical text used virtually throughout the Industrial Revolution, we learn that the entire creation came about for “God’s pleasure.”  That should have been enough to remind our ancestors that if all created things exist for God’s pleasure, we have no right to heedlessly destroy them.  We don’t know all of God’s purposes; so we shouldn’t assume upon them.  And even more to the point is our knowing that Jesus our Savior is also the Creator who made all things for himself and will reconcile them all to God (Colossians 1:15-20)—even corral grass

Right now in my favorite old orchard goldenrod is gilding the landscape, punctuated by brilliant magenta-stemmed pokeberries, striking red high-bush cranberries, white-eyed osier berries, and several varieties of crabapple.  They’re of no utility to me, but they are pleasing to my eye—and just knowing that they also give pleasure to my Savior-Creator, I take joy in them and in their seasonal glory.  And if I lived in Utah, I’d be finding wonder in corral grass.  “wonder resources” I call them.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King (Matthew 5:33-35).

Friday I used this passage from the Sermon on the Mount to show that Jesus reiterates the prophet Isaiah’s words (chapter 66).  I’m not a theologian, so I can’t tell you all the nuances of Jesus using these same words, and most of the commentaries I have read simply explain the main point of the message: just be honest and keep your word.  You do not need to make an oath on anything if you tell the truth and honor your promises.

That’s obviously a critical admonition for us all.  But in reference to the purpose of this Wonder of Creation site, something else really jumped out at me: As Isaiah states, the heavens and the earth—the entire cosmos—is the work of God’s “hands.”  And Jerusalem is as well.  Jerusalem was chosen by David (obviously through God’s direction), and it became the city of his throne built by human hands.  Psalm 48, written by “the sons of Korah,” used the same expression that Jesus used: it is “the city the Great King”—foretelling the time in the future when the New Jerusalem, made by God’s hands, descends to the earth and serves as “the throne of God and the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).

A major point, then—and one the church seems to have often missed—is that the material heavens and earth and coming New Jerusalem are all of sacred significance.  Consider some meanings of “sacred” from Dictionary.com:  Sacred: 1. devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose; consecrated. 2. entitled to veneration or religious respect by association with divinity or divine things; holy. 3. pertaining to or connected with religion (opposed to secular  or profane); 4. regarded with reverence; 5. secured against violation and infringement; 6. properly immune from violence, interference, etc.

John Muir left the formal church primarily because of his super-pious father, who knew the Scriptures backward and forward but was abusive and spiritually shallow.  But Muir kept his faith in God the Creator and perhaps sensed the sacred in the cosmos more than anyone else.  And it was primarily because of Muir that American political leaders had the foresight to preserve some of the nation’s most awe-inspiring wonders.  The great national parks indeed offer us the opportunity to sense the sacred in God’s good creation, but even a nearby meadow, woodlot, pond, seashore beach, or marsh left to pretty much function naturally gives evidence of His eternal power and divine nature.

I close with a reverie of John Muir’s as a motivation for us to wonder even today in the glory of God’s “footstool”:

The forests seem kindly familiar, and the lands and meadows and glad singing streams.  I should like to dwell with them forever.  Here with bread and water I should be content.  Even if not allowed to roam and climb, tethered to a stake or tree in some meadow or grove, even then I should be content forever.  Bathed in such beauty, watching the expressions ever varying on the faces of the mountains, watching the stars, which here have a glory that the lowlander never dreams of, watching the circling seasons, listening to the songs of the waters and winds and birds would be endless pleasure.  And what glorious cloudlands I should see, storms and calms—a new heaven and a new earth every day, aye and new inhabitants.  And how many visitors I should have. I feel sure I should not have one dull moment.  And why should this appear so extravagant?  It is common sense, a sign of health—genuine, natural, all-awake health.  One would be at an endless Godful play, and what speeches and music and acting and scenery and lights!—sun, moon, stars, auroras.  Creation just beginning, the morning stars “still singing together and all the children of God shouting for joy.” [From My First Summer In the Sierra]

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made (Psalm 145:3-9)

Having just returned from the tree-blessed Pacific Northwest, I’m still in awe of these treasures from the hand of our Creator.  No wonder that after people, trees are the most often mentioned living thing in the Bible.  While they are indeed a pleasure to the eye, I’m more impressed by the work that all trees together accomplish and the benefits they provide for the remainder of the earth’s biosphere (the realm in which the living things of the earth exist). Understanding how important trees are to all of life, we may decide to change the old adage to “a tree is man’s best friend.” Here’s a list of some of the things trees do for us:

• Provide oxygen
• Moderate temperature
• Enhance rainfall—yet prevent erosion
• Collect and absorb dust and other atmospheric pollutants
• Protect the earth from rapid climate change
• Produce and protect healthy soil
• Provide food
• Provide shelter and/or cover for many animals and birds
• Provide protection for thousands of species of
sun-sensitive plants
• Provide healing products
• Provide building products
• Provide paper products
• Provide wood
• Provide fuel
• Provide sensory stimulation and the experience of beauty
• Provide living fences that hold back drifting sand and snow
• Reduce light intensity from the sun
• Provide privacy
• Protect watersheds for communities
• Produce a sense of rootedness and community

One of the joys of examining the book of God’s Works is discovering the evidence of the Creator’s unmatched intelligence and incredible ingenuity. When one examines the miracle of the tree and its function, it’s hard to believe there are scientists who deny the existence of a Creator.

The first amazing fact about the tree’s physiology is its critical part in the carbon cycle. In essence, the tree takes in sunlight, gases from the air, and water, and it produces wood, leaves, fruit, and other elements critical for all life on earth. This is the process of  “photosynthesis,” a scientific term from Latin, which means “to put together with light.” And that’s exactly what happens in trees. They’re put together with light!

A greatly simplified description of the process is this: Tree leaves are green because they contain a vital substance called chlorophyll. This chlorophyll receives sunlight and mixes it with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water that has been drawn up from the ground through the roots, trunk, branches, and stems. This mix is turned into the carbohydrate glucose, a simple sugar. This sugar becomes the food for the tree, which through its God-given mechanisms manufactures all its critical structures—mostly wood and leaves. In the process of doing all this work, the living factory happens to produce atmospheric oxygen as a byproduct. Blessed be the tree!

So as we putter through each day breathing out carbon dioxide and flooding the air with it from our motorized vehicles, factories, and stoves, the trees and other green plants are “breathing” it in and then “exhaling” oxygen. In a sense, trees and you and I are a team that, through give and take, support each other in our work—work that can give praise to our Creator.

Trees also demonstrate God’s lavish provision. Not only do they build their own structure and give all living things oxygen, they also produce a surplus of carbohydrates in the form of sweet sap, healing leaves and oils, and nourishing fruit, nuts, and seeds. The wood we use for our homes, our furniture, our fireplaces, our paper, and thousands of other products is the result of the work of this amazing living machine.

According to Encarta, these gifts from the tree and other photosynthesizing organisms are so abundant that about 170 billion metric tons of extra carbohydrates are produced each year. That’s a total of 30 metric tons for every person on earth! Included in this is the approximately 100 billion cubic feet of wood harvested annually from the world’s forests.  If we are careful and don’t over-consume or harm forest ecosystems, there’s no reason we cannot keep our trees and our tree products

Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth…. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. (Psalm 96:1:11-13)

I’m looking forward to the end of this week: I head off on Friday for my annual retreat at Bluebell Springs, my brother and sister-in-law’s place on Orcas Island in the upper Puget Sound.  A special treat this year will be my taking part in the “Kindlings Fest,” a celebration of art and ideas where they intersect with the spiritual.

My emotional, spiritual, and intellectual batteries are badly in need of recharging.  And Bluebell Springs is the perfect charger, a sort of mini Butchart Gardens tucked in between the Sound and Moran State Park and surrounded by long established second-growth forest.

Bluebell Springs is a place where this song from the Psalms is not drowned out by the crush modern life—where the ”sea resounds” (softly here) and the forest “sings for joy.”  One can more easily imagine in this spot what the pristine creation might have looked like when, in the words of Wendell Berry, the Creator’s “pleasure was sole law.”

For all His creatures were His pleasures
And their whole pleasure was to be
What He made them; they sought no gain
Or growth beyond their proper measures,
Nor longed for change or novelty.
The only new thing could be pain.

(Wendell Berry, “The Sabbath Poems” #III 1979-1997,
A Timbered Choir)

And I’m looking forward to meeting Luci Shaw, the poet-in-residence for this year’s Kindlings Fest.  Luci’s poems have convinced me that we are kindred spirits: followers of Christ, the Divine Creator and Rescuer, and who both love the Pacific Northwest where Luci lives.  My soul longs for the spot in the forest I picked out last year where I can sit among the trees but see out above the oceanspray shrub over Barnes, Clark, and Lummi Islands to the Georgia Straight and beyond to Mt. Baker, the northernmost volcanic peak in the US portion of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. There too my soul can resonate with Luci’s as expressed in her poem “Forest Green.”

For centuries now the old-growth forest,
a victim, but also a devourer of the world,
has pulled into its slow boil of seasons,
into its emerald mouth beyond the hills, the sky’s
gold light, the elements of air, the sacred fluids—
creeks, rain, winter fogs—trapping clouds
of flying seeds, requiring the death of leaves
for a humus rich and dark as old leather,
rotting in small clumps the bones of birds,
translating all this fleshly language,
holding its secret meanings in a net
of vines and roots.
The forest keeps on writing
its own narrative in flourishes of green ink.

(Luci Shaw, “Forest Green,” from
The Green Earth: Poems of Creation)

I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever.  Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works (Psalm 145:1-5)

Poor Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) can’t seem to rest in peace.  Ever since her book Silent Spring virtually spawned the modern Environmental Movement, her scientific conclusions about DDT have been accepted, rejected, challenged and re-researched so often that it’s hard to know the truth about it.  Mostly, however, the issue has been an economic football kicked from post to post in a hard-fought battle between conservative libertarians and perceived “liberal” scientists.  For sure the issue has kept in everyone’s attention the advisability of spreading “cides” all over the landscape and has rightly cautioned us about using them without knowing all of the effects and side-effects of their use.

Rachel grew up in rural Pennsylvania and loved to explore and learn from the natural world as she ambled around her family’s 65-acre farm.  She was such an astute observer and good student that she had an article published when she was eleven!  Her sense of wonder in nature never left her.  In fact, it became the topic of another of her books: The Sense of Wonder.  The following quote from the book is found on the WOC page Creation Quotations and Wonder Kids.  Although Carson was not known as a follower of Christ and was probably a secular naturalist, her views on children and the sense of wonder are wise words for us to heed:

A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. Parents often have a sense of inadequacy when confronted on the one hand with the eager, sensitive mind of a child and on the other with a world of complex physical nature, inhabited by a life so various and unfamiliar that it seems hopeless to reduce it to order and knowledge. In a mood of self-defeat, they exclaim, “How can I possibly teach my child about nature—why, I don’t even know one bird from another!”

I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused—a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love—then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.

[From The Sense of Wonder, by Rachel L. Carson]

[Our grandchildren---from top to bottom:  Gunnar, Elle, and Anna]