Five days, nature-ally. (5/5)

Despite what I've said about sunshine and blue skies, I quite like a good cloud or an overcast sky. Now, if I had a camera good enough to capture those thin, sharp, almost glowing clouds that fly quickly past a bright, full moon on some fall nights I would feel less silly about trying to put the view into words. My goodness. Those are breath-taking. I tell you, it was a sky like that which led me to compose my first piece of music. (I remember stopping in my tracks at the north-east corner of Kipling and the Queensway because I was so caught by the beauty. I didn't actually take the moment to think, "I should stop and look at this." I was truly shocked or grabbed enough to have that automatic reaction.) Now, the piece was not very good at all but I guess even my young teenage (non-Christian) self wanted to try to respond to or feed back or describe or capture some of the beauty I was witnessing.

Now this shot has something about it of the "breaking through" or "dawning" or "impending" or "cloaked" power that I find mesmerising. And I think non-Christians do, too.

 

Part of one of David's songs:

"He parted the heavens and came down;

   dark clouds were under his feet.

He mounted the cherubim and flew;

   he soared on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his canopy around him--

   the dark rain clouds of the sky." (II Samuel 22:10-12)

 

From the Psalms:

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad;

  let the distant shores rejoice.

Clouds and thick darkness surround him;

  righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. (97:1-2)

 

This one is great for getting the impending power I'm thinking of:

The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment;

  he stretches out the heavens like a tent

  and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot

  and rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes winds his messengers,

  flames of fire his servants. (Psalm 104:2-4)

 

And of course the dominant passage for the topic:

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14)

 

But, my favourite is probably the very grey sky with rain on the tip of its tongue. I just find it beautiful and I'm not sure why. The day I took the photo below, the temperature was a perfect cool, the wind perfectly active and engaging. I was out of my tree with delight. I love pre-storm weather! I very often (since childhood) wonder if I should have been born a seafarer. I love a good rainstorm and I love the smell and the tingling that precede it. I suppose I also like watching people scramble indoors--partly selfishly because I'm so introverted but more because it continually reminds me of God's power.

 

Weather has got to be the one natural thing that invariably has a trump card for any plans or ambitions of man--and I feel like I see this trumping more acutely in the all-powerful, all-clever, all-entitled Western world of the twenty-first century. Never to cast God as cruel or perverse, but simply to say the One who controls the weather deserves at least a little awe.

 

  That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

  He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

  They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:35-41)

 

In closing, I'll begin like the closing book of the Bible (Revelation 1:5b-7):

 

  To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

 

  "Look, he is coming with the clouds,"

     and every eye will see him,

   even those who pierced him";

     and all peoples on earth "will mourn because of him."

                        So shall it be! Amen.

Five days, nature-ally. (4/5)

It wasn't planned but it seems the gaps between my publish dates in this series increase as exponents of base 2. It's been two-cubed days since I last posted. :)

Today I want to write about blue skies but I haven't much to say about them. In the last couple weeks I've been struck by them every time they appear but I always find there isn't much to say. I think part of the reason is that I don't want them to be inherently better or more pleasant than any other kind of sky. But... I must admit that experientially, blue skies make me feel better (generally) than grey skies do. Red skies and pitch-dark night skies also have different effects.

Is it objectively grounded or is this our conditioned response, an engrained cultural association? How often do we use "blue skies" as a metaphor for things looking "up" or being calm, favourable, right, optimistic, clear, hopeful, good?

I see trees of green, red roses, too,

I see them bloom for me and you
and I think to myself, "what a wonderful world."

I see skies of blue, clouds of white,
the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
and I think to myself, "what a wonderful world."
"What a Wonderful World" © 1967 Bob Thiele, George David Weiss

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
there's a land that I dreamed of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.
"Over the Rainbow" © 1939 Harold Arlen, E. Y. Harburg

I'm sure there are more but none is coming to mind right now. Today, like most blue sky days, when I saw it I instinctively smiled. (And then I thanked God for it, even though I don't understand why it seems to be inherently good or pleasant.) I've never been able to pinpoint the reason for the impulse to smile but it's strong every time I see a perfect, blue expanse. I keep staring and staring at it, almost trying to stare through it, hoping eventually it'll make sense to me or I'll be able to capture it.

Five days, nature-ally. (3/5)

I seem to never be able to get over flowers. I think they're beautiful without cause--but I mean that in a worshipful way! They seem beautiful just because they're beautiful. I don't understand much of how beauty works and why humans "get it" but I think I can surmise at the very minimum that we recognise beauty for the same reason we recognise life and pleasure and joy. It's been written in us by God because those things are derived from Him. And we are from Him. And we belong with Him and we desire Him*.

Yes, I understand about bright colors of flowers attracting insects that pollinate and all that but God could have made them attractive to insects but not to us. (Don't even get me started on the wonders of pollination.)

*Yes, I also understand that man's "desire" for God is questionable at best. Apart from Christ's saving work we were purely rebellious and hateful. But even those in Christ often make choices as if they didn't desire God after all. Sometimes His call to joy and freedom and better and good is one we prefer to ignore, suppress, reject.

This photo might be working against the point I want to make but I thought it was worth sharing anyways. I have never seen a dandelion mutated like this. There are two heads grown together! (It makes me a little more amazed by how many things are necessary for flowers (or animals or people) to turn out right.)

When I study flora I feel as taken and impressed as when I study a good painting, quilt, poem, blueprint, song, play, etc. I look and stare and look closer and stare and wonder...just wonder how someone got all those ideas and figured out all those details and took the time and care to put it together so impeccably. Flowers are simply remarkable and so much more is the Great Artist!

Five days, nature-ally. (2/5)

Today I marvelled at God's creativity within the animal kingdom. Rather, I marvelled at how little it takes to fascinate us and how many centuries it took us to discover just a fraction of how His creation works. We're very much still figuring things out.

Today I listened to an expert on donkeys and I learned quite a lot. As she told us about training and about the differences between donkeys and their equine relatives, the horse and the mule, I thought a lot about how the Lord told Job that is was Him who made some animals tameable and some not.

Donkeys are not exactly as "stubborn" as we tend to consider them. The expert told us they are better described as thoughtful: they weigh options and always choose what serves them best, in terms of safety or comfort, etc. We run into problems if we expect donkeys to behave like horses which we often do because of physical resemblance, and to that end our guide suggested it would be better off for donkeys if they looked like kangaroos! That way humans would know what kind of caution to take and would also be more wary of attack from the front instead of from behind (another misunderstanding about donkeys).

I had no idea that donkeys could manoeuvre their eyes independently and their ears independently! I figure it would be creepy to watch but it sounds great for anticipating threats. I also didn't know they were so brave. Because they tend to live with a herd, horses can escape a predator merely by outrunning at least one other horse. But because donkeys in the wild tend to be a very small family unit (a jenny and her foal, I understand) if the jenny outruns the foal, her lineage is toast. So, donkeys will stay and fight predators, and even sometimes actively run them off. For this reason, in captivity they are sometimes used as guard animals. This instinct to hold their ground (even to protect their territory) is another part of why we would label them as "stubborn". Something else I didn't know: donkeys have a natural dislike of dogs!

Also on account of their eyes moving independently, donkeys' depth perception is not great. They can be very confused by uneven ground. The expert told us about a time they were trying to lead donkeys out of a trailer but the animals wouldn't comply because the ground had enough of a dark puddle that to their eyes would have looked like a bottomless pit! So the donkeys' refusal to exit the trailer was not because of stubbornness but rather because of (justified, in context) fear!

Without wanting to be completely rude, I feel as though studying God's creation for just a few minutes makes it seem like every human being is a complete moron. More than that--it's like our collective "knowledge" and "insight" is an ignorant speck of nothing compared to what God knows and has created. I stare at the wings of a dragonfly and I think I have literally no knowledge in my head. I think about hummingbirds and I feel stupid (and speechless). I'm not exaggerating here. I take one moment to watch an ant carry off half a bagel without breaking a sweat and I'm like a painfully gullible child after a quarter has been pulled from her ear. "But.... wha.... how....??" just staring and stammering.

Goodness... never mind knowledge, wisdom, and creativity, what about the power that it takes to execute these beautiful plans? And the ability to give life?! Goodness... Who is He like??

"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
    and satisfy the hunger of the lions
when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in a thicket?
Who provides food for the raven
    when its young cry out to God
    and wander about for lack of food?

"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
Do you count the months till they bear?
    Do you know the time they give birth?
They crouch down and bring forth their young;
    their labor pains are ended.
Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds;
    they leave and do not return.

"Who let the wild donkey go free?
    Who untied its ropes?
I gave it the wasteland as its home,
    the salt flats as its habitat.
It laughs at the commotion in the town;
    it does not hear a driver’s shout.
It ranges the hills for its pasture
    and searches for any green thing.

"Will the wild ox consent to serve you?
    Will it stay by your manger at night?
Can you hold it to the furrow with a harness?
    Will it till the valleys behind you?
Will you rely on it for its great strength?
    Will you leave your heavy work to it?
Can you trust it to haul in your grain
    and bring it to your threshing floor?

"The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
    though they cannot compare
    with the wings and feathers of the stork.
She lays her eggs on the ground
    and lets them warm in the sand,
unmindful that a foot may crush them,
    that some wild animal may trample them.
She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers;
    she cares not that her labor was in vain,
for God did not endow her with wisdom
    or give her a share of good sense.
Yet when she spreads her feathers to run,
    she laughs at horse and rider." (Job 38:39-39:18)

Five days, nature-ally. (1/5)

I thought I might try another writing challenge because I seem to have stalled with blogging lately. This should actually kill two birds with one stone because over the last year or so there's been a growing desire in me to work on worshipping God through the experience of nature. I suppose I have grown up thinking "nature" could be taken or left; it was a question of personality if one was outdoorsy or not. The more I have read of the psalms (and Job!) and studied some solid hymns, and the more I have paid attention to the things that cause me to marvel, the more I realise it's not optional! Creation is good and God is a master artist!

As I write, I'm thankful for the sunshine. As I walked home, the heat was overwhelming but now, body temperature comfortable and glorious rays streaming through the open porch door, I'm elated.

It feels like it's been a long winter, eh? (I don't mean that metaphorically.) Today I think there will be no snapback. Today I think we won't see snow or negative temperatures until the fall. I know all seasons are good and I enjoy them each. But, tired of being cold and under grey skies, I'm loving the sunshine today. I'm literally wiggling my toes.

It's beautiful. Basking in warm sunshine ranks among my top basic delights.

A few things came to mind as I wrote the intro to this post:

[Hark! the Herald Angels Sing] Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris'n with healing in His wings. (Charles Wesley)

[Revelation 22] No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (3-5)

[Offering] The sun cannot compare to the glory of Your love;
there is no shadow in Your presence.
No mortal man would dare to stand before Your throne,
before the Holy One of heaven. (Paul Baloche, 2002)

[I Timothy 6] ...God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. (15b-16)

[Revelation 21] I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. (22-27)

layers, kinda.

Theoretical:
Disappointment is a hard thing. I was just thinking that if hope is so important for people, if it can be our lifeline, or the difference between the same event being interpreted as hardship or despair, then disappointment (the quashing of a hope) can be a very hard thing.

Vague Actual:

I kept my composure, I tried not to dwell or what-if, I repeatedly told God I was trusting Him and was giving this hope to Him. He got me through. I wasn't a mess, I wasn't vacant, and I didn't compromise. I cried a little when I got home as the magician's smoke cleared. (Yes--poof!--it was really gone. I didn't have what I'd been hoping for.)

Truth and Consolation:

Psalm 33:20-22

We wait in hope for the LORD;

  he is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice,

  for we trust in his holy name.

May your unfailing love be with us, LORD,

  even as we put our hope in you.