A Special Call

 
Ring. Ring.
"Hey, Friend, It's for you. God's calling."
Are you answering?

What in nature calls you to God? Is it the sea?

 Oswald Chambers in his classic devotional, My Utmost for his Highest (Discovery House Publishers, 1935), writes:  "The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him....His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes,..."

California Coastline

Is it the mountains?

 Fall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains                      (photo courtesy Dan Raatjes)

Perhaps it's canyons or a serene snowy woods or a ladybug sitting on a bright green leaf. What about a magnificent spider web glistening in the sun or thundering water falls?

For me, it's trees--their trunks, bark, branches, and especially their leaves. Years ago my thoughtful sister mailed me 30 colorful fall leaves from the woods of my childhood home in Ohio. They are very special to me. I laminated them and bring them out every year at the start of Fall. This year some are taped to the bathroom mirror, and some are scattered on a table top. They give me the warm fuzzies because I grew up amid a forest of shaggy bark hickory trees. (I almost hyperventilated when I first saw the California redwoods.)

What Speaks to You?

Pinpoint what in nature speaks to your soul, helps you breathe a little more deeply and smile. What makes your shoulders relax and keeps you from checking your phone for messages? When you identify "your thing," that's God calling you.

The Apostle Paul writes to the believers in Rome that no one, not even someone who never has read a Bible, has an excuse not to know God. Why? "...because the whole created world reveals him." (Study notes to Romans 1: 20, NIV)

The verse reads like this:  "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1: 20) Then Paul goes on to excoriate people who choose to live in godlessness and wickedness.

Just as the sea, mountains, snow, etc. call us to believe in God, he calls us to a relationship with him. He didn't create the world and then send us spinning off into the universe to survive on our own. He desires fellowship with us. When we worship him or spend time with him, he delights in it. I have to believe he smiles. I know he sings:

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3: 17)

Call to Action:  find a beautiful photo of a favorite scene in God's creation that pulls on you. Put it in a prominent place if it's a hard copy or display it digitally as a background on your desktop or phone. Let it be a reminder God is pulling you toward himself and he delights in your company.

God's calling. Are you answering?

Red-Eyed Leaf Frog of Costa Rica (rana ojos rojos)

I Know Where God Lives!

That's right, I know where God makes his home. It's the Canadian Rockies in Banff, Yoho, & Jasper National Parks. When I first visited Colorado I was certain God was there because the beauty took my breath away. Then I went to Canada.

I've seen other beautiful places around the world & all are fantastic in their own right but..."Oh, no. He lives here," I thought when I first glimpsed the scenery in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. They are some of his greatest handiwork.

 What you see here is a crystal blue lake formed by melting glaciers, rimmed with stately evergreens, all backed up with the craggy peaks of those incredible mountains. I believe this was the valley of the Ten Peaks & yes, there were ten (I had to count).

My husband & I just returned from an 8-day trip to this beautiful country. We canoed on icy cold Lake Louise, formed by Victoria Glacier, & walked on the surface of Athabasca Glacier in a guided group. What a contrast to our August desert climate. I dipped my hands into several rivers that had been frozen ice about 10 hours previously.

The clear mountain air was so pristine our lungs had trouble figuring out what happened to the pollutants and allergens of the city. Invigorating, to say the least.

Another fascinating part of our vacation travel was hearing a Bear Specialist--yes, there are such things--talk about her long experience tracking & studying these amazing animals.

The more she described the intricacies of a bear's existence & their search for the right kinds of food at different seasons of the year, the more I was awed by God's creation. Those animals crave the bulbs & stems of a specific plant that grows in a specific place that provides the specific nutrient they need to prepare for hibernation in the long winter. It's all been planned out by God when he first created these beautiful animals. And yes, we did see about four of them on our trip, along with some elk, deer, & lots of little squirrels.
   

God, of course, doesn't live just in the Canadian Rockies though I suspect he, too, loves the beauty. God is everywhere, in each of us and even in the ugly parts of the world (ugly because mankind made them that way, sad to say).

He's given us this beautiful world to enjoy & care for. Let's vow to stop messing it up. Look for God in all of his creation & take seriously his command to "cultivate it and guard it" (Genesis 2:15).

What Can We Do?

Caring for the earth can be as simple as making small lifestyle changes or as involved as joining an organization (or starting one) that respects the world & saves it for generations to come.

What is one habit you can develop or change you can make in your daily life that will enhance God's creation? What is something you can teach your loved ones about minimizing their ecological footprints?

Wherever you are, in the desert or city or mountains or wherever, look up & look down to observe creation. We must worship the Creator & not the created but we can draw closer to him as we admire his work.

For those of you who adore animals, here's a little guy (red squirrel, I think, even though he looks like Alvin the Chipmunk) who begged & pestered us during our picnic lunch. First rule of the National Parks:  Don't feed the animals! Obviously, someone didn't heed that because he was very friendly & looked quite well-fed.

 

 

"God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased."  (Genesis 1:31 - Good News Translation)

Psalm 19 is sometimes called the Creation Psalm. Read it for yourself & see if it doesn't praise the glory of God:

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth,their words to the ends of the world." (verses 1-4)

That's all, Folks!

(Are you gonna finish that sandwich?)