Over the past couple of months, I have had the privilege of traveling a little for our church’s ministry, my church consulting ministry, and to visit our wonderful grandchildren. Each time I’ve trekked across our state or beyond, I am amazed at the beauty of nature. God certainly loves us to have placed us upon such a beautiful planet.
Nature has always spoken to my heart and even to my soul. Whether on the water or in the woods, I somehow feel closer to God when able to be wrapped in His wonderful artistry. The Master Artist used every artistic medium; colors, textures, temperatures, odors, humidity, and such, as He crafted this wonderful terrarium in which we live.
Amazingly, the Bible tells us that he spoke the earth and all its features, both life-sustaining, and life-enriching, into existence. Imagine, the amazing power He possess to be able to simply speak and have your words birth stars, worlds, and details into being. Perhaps that is why nature speaks back to us in our hearts and souls.
Every morning, He gives us a sunrise. Every evening, we are given a sunset. Between them we are given a day full of singing birds, breeze-driven trees, twinkling stars, billowing clouds, gurgling streams, and other touches of beauty. These fill our senses and our hearts. In fact, some of my favorite things to do is enjoy the beauty of the sunrise or the stillness of a star-filled night. As I write this article, I am witnessing the beginning of a new day.
God’s Word teaches us that, although He created everything with his spoken command, the power of his voice, there is one creature in which God took particular care and detail in creating. When He created us, by creating the first man, he chose to do thing differently. God hand-crafted man. The God of all creation, with the power of life and death in his spoken word scooped up some of the earth’s dust and sculpted His most masterful work. God loves us that much.
“…then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:7-8 ESV)
God loves us that much. He chose to create us in a different way than all the rest of creation. He gave us breath from his very breath. He made us in his very own image.
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 ESV)
Of all God’s creation, of all the creatures, we are the only ones who bear his image. Not just some of us, but all of us. We are each image-bearers of the most powerful and most loving One. It is in our nature. It is our nature.
Part of this feature of mankind is the power to build up, to create, to express ourselves creatively and artistically. Another part is the ability to enact destruction. Unfortunately, we tend to do the latter quite well and particularly often, particularly when dealing with one another. We fail to remember that everyone is crated in God’s image, and we somehow find it easy to tear them down or at least treat them in ways that are far from treating them as image-bearers of God. (I am sometimes amazed at how we value nature and seek to preserve it while failing to nurture one another, although each of us is God’s most beautiful and precious creation.)
This morning, as I experienced the sunrise, I feel close to God in His creation. I feel His presence in the quiet stillness of the new day arriving. I often feel close to God in nature. I seek times of respite and relaxation in God’s creation.
I pray that God will continue to give me a sense of the beauty of His creation, but more so to recognize and value each of His special, most loved creation as I encounter each person every day. I pray I see God’s image in the face of every person. Each face, each fingerprint, each personality, and each soul are unique, one-of-a-kind creations of a loving God. People matter to God. Not just people in general, but each person, specifically.
I sometimes get busy and self-absorbed. Do you do the same? Is it possible that we overlook one another on our way to the next appointment or task? Furthermore, is it possible that we fail to consider the value of fellow image-bearers of God? They matter to God, but do they truly matter to us? Are there those in our circles, our city, and our society in general that need us to pause and consider how uniquely and wonderfully they were created and to treat them as such? Each person is God’s most beautiful creation.
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