NATURE – One of the best places to find solitude, even to connect with God.  It is easy to understand why some people begin to almost idolize nature.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” [Psalm 19:1 NIV]

When we take the opportunity to go for a walk in the woods or stroll on the seashore, or gaze at lofty mountains’ grandeur, we become intuitively aware of the grand artistry behind creation.  Nature becomes a temple, a place to pause and worship God.  Some have said, “I feel closest to God when I am out in nature.”

 Yet nature can be deceiving.  It may depict an intricate Divine design, but it also portrays the worst in human experience.  One need only go through a tornado, hurricane or wild fire to see the impact of uncontrollable, raw power wiping out everything in its path.  Is that the nature of God?

 We can reflect on the laws of cause and effect in nature that brings order out of chaos.  Or you can observe the inevitable law of the food chain whereby one animal eats another without regard for its inherent beauty.  Nature is “red in tooth and claw.”  It is the survival of the fittest.  Is that the nature of God?

Nature can be compelling.  It can also be chilling.  While it provides the context for private contemplation, it also gives a reason for sheer terror.  Why do people ascribe qualities of a deity to nature when it can be so impersonal and arbitrary?  Why do people worship the earth or the cosmos as if it has a distinct being or personality?

Maybe that is because of their view of God.  A deity existing out there in ways we cannot understand.  A divine force beyond comprehension that rules our lives by fate.   An underlying life principle that makes us just one speck in the great life cycle – a piece of stardust that has no meaning other than the fact we exist.

That is not the Biblical view of nature.  God created nature.  God is NOT nature.  God used nature to give us a home, but nature is not our final resting place.  We see the signs of our Creator in nature, but it is not the only revelation of the true nature of God.  God loved us enough to become an integral, intimate part of His creation in the Person of Jesus Christ to give us a more complete self-disclosure of His full nature.

Nature is only a signpost.  The incredibly beautiful aspects of nature do not fully contain the glory of God.  Because of the fallen nature of creation it has “been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” [Romans 8:22 NIV] 

Yet we have been given our creation as a gift to use and nurture, not dominate and destroy.  We are to tend the earth and care for all living things.  God has placed us as human beings into a world of both awesome splendor and remarkable destruction.  We are meant to use it to bring glory to God and bring forth the necessary resources to support all living things.  But in the end it will be replaced with a “new heaven and new earth.”  Then nature will truly be a temple to worship the One True God.

• Where is your favorite place to go in nature to relax, reflect and get “closer to God”?
• What aspects of nature teach you most about the nature of God?
• What is one way you can tend the earth and care for all living things as an expression of your love for God's gift of creation?