Have you ever stared at the night sky and thought about all those stars up there? We are so blessed here in the Rocky Mountains and similar areas on Earth where you can see a lot of stars! As a little kid, I had this really simplistic picture in my head where I envisioned the night sky like a giant sheet spread out with a whole bunch of pinholes in it and a bright light on the other side. A nice and simple picture — but more on that later.
Over the years I’ve had many outdoor adventures, some peaceful and breathtaking and some harrowing and dangerous, but all of them captivating and wonderful with the common theme of being a part of a very beautiful and living world. Add to that my scientific background of study and you get a mind that is constantly looking at the world through eyes full of wonder and dazzled by its brilliance. If I only had a nickel for each time I said “wow!” when looking at a sunset, a sunrise, the mesmerizing warmth of a campfire, a wild whitewater river, an eagle soar and dive, or lightning crash … I could go on and on here, but you get my point.
Can I “science you” for a minute or factualize briefly? There’s some wonder and awe I have to speak of, or my heart might burst! I’ll only touch on a couple though, okay?
I love Max Lucado’s very simple breakdown of how many stars there are when he says hold a dime out at arm’s length (you can use the tip of your finger since we often don’t have a dime between us when out at camp looking at the night sky!) and you’ll block out 15 million stars! But wait, there’s more … each of those stars we are blocking out is just like our very own sun, or even bigger! And our sun is only 1 of about 100 billion in our Milky Way Galaxy! And, we don’t know how many galaxies there are. Infinity? That’s a word we can’t actually grasp as we have nothing to actually compare it to. Time? That there was no beginning to time is also unimaginable and I use the stars and universe as a comparison. We can’t quite grasp something without any boundary. Does that not give you a sense of how incredibly big the universe is? So, in our universe, time and distance are inconceivable to our minds. Does this remind you of anyone?
The Miracle of Water
How about right here on Earth? Have you ever really thought about water? We could write an entire book on the incredible properties of water, but to catch a few droplets … life is completely dependent on water. Like energy, it is never lost or any new water created. The same amount of water on earth exists now as there was in the very beginning! Not a drop more or less! The water cycle is so brilliantly perfect. And oh, but there’s more … water is one of those rare elements that naturally occurs in all 3 states (not like state of New Mexico, but states of solid, liquid, and gas). If it didn’t, life couldn’t exist. But wait, yep there’s more … Even more rare is that water also floats in that solid form of itself we call ice. If it didn’t, every time the air got to freezing temperatures, the ice formed on a lake would drop to the bottom and then the next layer would drop and so on until all lakes in the parts of the world that get cold would freeze solid. Think about all the ripple effects from that! Who could have ever thought of something like this? I hope they received a patent!
The Genius Design of Trees
Speaking of water, and life and all things created, what about water getting to the top of a tree? It’s an incredible display of absolute genius! There’s transpiration, cohesion, capillary action, and pressure all working together. The very same water and sun we have been talking about combine forces to bring water up from the ground, against gravity, and send water all the way to the very top of the tallest trees. Tell me that doesn’t just blow your mind! I don’t have room or time here to break it all down, but that trees exist because of these combined and incredible forces, that are so perfectly choreographed, again leaves me astounded at the brilliance of the system! Here’s a mental picture for you … Have you ever looked at a topographic map with all the lines showing the rises and falls, the ridges and canyons, the little streams up high, and the big rivers in the lower areas? You see these little branch streams up high and they trickle down small ravines and join another little trickle in a small ravine to be a perennial stream and so on until they become a few little rivers finally joining forces in a bigger canyon or valley to become one big river, right? Now, that is a tree! Oh, except all the water is flowing uphill! Remind you of anything? Wow!
There’s a quote by the great writer C.S. Lewis that really summed up how I view the world, creation, and nature obviously front and center. He said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The sun illuminates the world for us to see it. So does the Son. Now that I see through eyes acknowledging the Son of Man, so I am now able to see everything through the lenses of a God-created world.
Creation in Our Lives
With that I have one more thought that I’d like to speak into. More recently in my life I’ve begun to see another aspect within the spectrum of humans and our view on nature and creation and our need for it in our lives. Whether lost and/or struggling to find a worldview and belonging or purpose, or just conversation about wonderful things between people who see creation the same way, I can’t think of anyone I know or have known that doesn’t bring nature into their lives in some way, shape, or form. We have many stickers and sayings on our cars and water bottles and coffee cups these days. I’m sure you can think of quite a few but one of my favorites is The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go. This to me translates into God is calling. Creation calls us as a way to be connected to our Creator. Whether we immerse ourselves in nature every day or we live in a city and have plants on a windowsill in a high-rise apartment, we bring ourselves in contact with nature. We put aquariums in offices and hang calendars featuring animals and beautiful scenic pictures of nature. There are serene pictures in the dental office on the ceiling. We have pets. For some, it’s a walk in the park in the middle of the city, or feeding the pigeons and ducks, a trip to the zoo. For others, it’s fishing or backpacking, horseback riding, climbing a mountain. We connect with nature and God’s creation every chance we get, all of us at some level. There is, in each of our hearts, an inherent desire to respond to the mountains calling.
Our Brillant Creator
God’s creation and our renewal in Him, our new life after letting Christ in, is so well represented by the cycle of life and the perfect, brilliant patterns all around us. We are told in the Bible that there is no excuse for not believing in God by the beauty and creation all around us if we will just open our eyes. The changing of colors in the aspen trees, like the flames in my campfire, always remind me of that beautiful renewing cycle. They turn orange and red and then finally drop to help renew and make things grow again.
I shift back again to the night sky and smile at the little kid who likened it to a sheet spread out with a bazillion pinholes in it and a bright light on the other side. I need to view things more simplistic again and accept that God has created some unimaginable, incredible, and still mysterious things that are yet to be revealed. There really is a bright light on the other side and each pinhole is a bit of what God has revealed to us in order to see Him. Just enough that we can’t not see Him, and just enough to keep us intrigued and seeking Him and that connection.
Hey, friend — the mountains are calling!
