As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” . . . Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. (Psalm 42:1-3, 7)

Francis Schaeffer once commented that “the death of joy in nature is leading to the death of nature itself.” He concluded that this was the result of the Darwinian view of nature. I believe Schaeffer was right in his evaluation. However, I believe there are additional reasons for loss of joy in nature—more personal and spiritual reasons. I’m in a Psalm 42-43 period, and I don’t feel much joy right now—and nature isn’t helping. The wonders of creation still abound, but my heart does not abound with them. I’ve been here before, and I know that the joy will return, but I also know that one must never look to the creation alone for lasting joy. That comes from the Creator himself. [Deer photo source]

I’m trying to figure out the reasons for this current loss of joy. Unrelenting heat and the lack of rain is slowly sucking the life out of West Michigan’s potential harvest, which brings up thoughts about the global climate change debate that’s dividing the world, our nation, and even the church. Trees all around us are in great distress and dying by the thousands, and attuned to the natural world as I am, I see this and am saddened by it. Last night I read some new reports that are providing facts that give evidence of the worst summer coral kill in decades. And deep below the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, millions of gallons of dispersed oil are settling down to the bottom threatening to greatly enlarge the Gulf’s “dead zone.”

I’m personally conservative in faith, economics, and politics, but am horribly disappointed by the mean-spirited and polarizing language of conservative pundits. And in spite of my efforts and the efforts of many friends to help motivate evangelicals to care more about and for the creation, it seems that conservative Christians would rather trust the word of talkshow personalities than either God’s Word or the words of fellow believers in the sciences who are confirming the existence of multiple environmental crises created in part by our materialism. We don’t want to hear that; so we sort of collectively put our fingers in our ears and mutter, “Na, na, na. . . .” [Dead coral photo source]

Add that to the fact that so many of the local churches we’ve been looking at to commit to seem to have become venues for Sunday rock concerts and/or social clubs for young families that appear to care little for whatever experience and wisdom those of us over 60 might have to share with them. Further, many fellow “seniors” simply seem to have melted into complacency and into their easy chairs in front of TV screens watching depressing news from every corner of the globe—and watching it for hours because most of the rest of what you get on TV is either inane or profane. They don’t particularly make good conversation partners.

Then I add all this to the fact that some people I love are experiencing health problems and relationship struggles. That’s probably one reason my soul resonates with the deer who “pants for streams of water.” So today I especially need to do what the psalmist recommends: “Put your hope in God—for I will praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11).

And I might also again read chapter eight in C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.  If your soul is in the dumps today, you might want to do that too. You can read it here.

Another classic on this issue, and extremely thorough, is Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure, by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

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.

This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?”declares the LORD (Isaiah 66:1-2).

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).

In my last post I made reference to John Walton, Old Testament scholar at Wheaton, and to his conclusion that the Genesis creation account, when seen in the context of the nations surrounding Israel, demonstrates all the attributes of a temple inauguration ceremony common to that era.  The prime difference, of course, is that in Genesis the Creator of the heavens and earth is inaugurated, not fanciful man-made idols.  It was in essence the very lamp of truth that Israel was to lift up for the nations around them to see so that they could be drawn to worship the one true God also.  And Israel’s miracle-filled establishment and existence was the evidence. [Walton's PowerPoint lecture on this is here.  Click on his photo to see the presentation.]

Walton’s colleague Gregory Beale, a New Testament scholar, has taken this concept and brought it through the Old Testament and all the way through the New Testament to the end.  He shows that Eden, the wilderness tabernacle, and the Jerusalem temple all have similar attributes and are places of God’s presence on earth—with His priests,  servants, and stewards occupying and being nourished by the surrounding area.

And as Eden had a river that watered the gardens and became the headwaters of many rivers going out to the nations (Genesis 2:10-14), so from God’s throne in the coming New Jerusalem there flows a river (Revelation 22:1-2) along which grows the tree of life which provides for the healing of the nations.  This is clearly the same tree of life we see in the garden of Eden—and from which mankind was banished.  Losing access to the sustenance of that tree led to the death of Adam and Eve—and all the rest of humankind.  But in the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of the new heaven to the new earth, people will gain access once again to the tree that provides such nourishment that those who eat of it will not die.

Man, this is exciting stuff: the Bible has perfect bookends!  So what should all this mean to us who are between the bookends?  Well that’s a study that clearly will not end until the End—in part because in the books that rest between is the story of Jesus, God in human flesh, and the salvation He provides for us and the restoration He provides for the creation.  At the culmination of all things where the New Jerusalem becomes the worship center of the cosmos, we will see the final proof of Jesus deity: the last chapter of the Revelation tells us that the throne in the Holy City rests on the dais “of God and of the Lamb.”

What does this mean about the wonder of creation, the theme of this website?  The implications are huge and provide food for thought and study that will no doubt occupy us and influence our living until the coming of the Lamb, who will be greeted with exuberant joy by all the creatures of earth: “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!’” (Revelation 5:13).

If all nature is expectantly waiting for that grand finale, as Paul tells us it is (Romans 8:18-21), it means that believers have more affinity with the natural world than we do with the world of men who are rejecting “the Lamb who was slain” for them.  The natural world is filled with fellow worshipers all yearning for the enthronement of that Lamb—and for its release from the curse and its coming blessed coexistence with the children of God, who will also be finally free.

It is proper to weep over creation’s pain and abuse, but all the while remembering that we do not “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Both followers of Christ and the suffering creation will share in the glory to come.

[Jesus as Lamb and Lion painting by Spencer Williams.  Be sure to look at his site.]

Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these (Luke 12:27).

The photos that accompany this post are of the bluebells of Bluebell Springs, the forty acres of wonder on Orcas Island in Washington State that my brother and sister-in-law are grooming and holding for the joy of family and friends and for the glory of God.

My three weeks there were a bit like being transported for a short time to Eden—making my journey back home over the weekend a bit like going back to East of Eden, in the John Steinbeck mode: living in the midst of a fallen world, and being reminded of it by the cacophony of troubling news and chaos blasting from newspaper racks and airport TV’s.

I am now trying to keep in mind this reminder from George MacDonald:

The appearances of nature are the truths of nature, far deeper than any scientific discoveries in and concerning them.  The show of things is that for which God cares most, for their show is the face of far deeper things than they; we see in them, in a distant way, as in a glass darkly, the face of the unseen.  It is through their show, not through their analysis, that we enter into their deepest truths.  What they say to the childlike soul is the truest thing to be gathered from them.  To know a primrose is a higher thing than to know all the botany of it—just as to know Christ is an infinitely higher thing than to know all theology, all that is said about His person, or babbled about His work. . . .

I would not be supposed to depreciate the labors of science, but I say its discoveries are unspeakably less precious than the merest gifts of nature, those which, from morning to night, we take unthinking from her hands.  One day, I trust, we shall be able to enter into their secrets from within them—by natural contact between our heart and theirs.  When we are one with God, we may well understand in an hour things that no man of science, prosecuting his investigations from the surface with all the aids that keenest human intellect can supply, would reach in the longest lifetime.

There exists a mystery in the world, and in all the looks of it—a mystery because of a meaning.  There is a jubilance in every sunrise, a sober sadness in every sunset. There is a whispering of strange secrets in the wind of twilight and an unknown bliss in the song of the lark.

We cannot help but aware of something beyond it all, now and then filling our minds and hearts with wonder, and compelling us to ask, “What can it all mean?”  The flowers live.  They come from the same heart as man himself, and are sent to be his companions and ministers.  There is something divinely magical, because profoundly human, in them.  Our feeling for many of them doubtless comes from certain associations from childhood.  But how did they get hold of us even in childhood?  Why do they enter our souls at all?  It is because the flowers are joyous, inarticulate children, come with vague messages from the Father of all. If I confess that what they say to me sometimes make me weep, how can I call my feeling for them anything but love?

And the flowers are only one example.  All nature, from the mountains to the seas to the fog that hangs so low on the hills, the heather in August, the hot, the cold, the rain—everything speaks, like the flower, messages from God, the Father of the universe.  The eternal may have a thousand forms of which we know nothing yet!

[“God’s Being Reflected in Nature” from Discovering the Character of God compiled by Michael R. Phillips for Bethany House Publishers, pp. 115-117]

The bluebells of Bluebell Springs bloom in precarious places where the land drops off to meet the sea—especially where springs on the flank of Mt. Constitution gather in a pond and then cascade down a steeply graded and fern-filled ravine until they gather once again in a small pool and then drop off and splash into the Georgia Strait at high tide—or upon the polished stones of the shore at low tide.

[Clicking on the photos will bring up larger images.]

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