Nature and our emotions: staying focused

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While I appreciate this study's key point ("Nature as a source of health") – the role of nature’s beauty as a comfort and aid to knowing God – my study pushed me to a deeper realization.  I saw that nature’s value was and still can be to draw us deeper into relationship with God.  The Genesis account, along with other instances in Jesus’ earthly life show nature as a beautiful stage or frame to display God’s character, to delight and woo us, and draw us into harmony with his will.

NATURE AND OUR EMOTIONS.  I’ve always been deeply spiritually responsive and open to the natural world and even now, I’m seeing in my mind’s eye the wild vastness of snowcapped peaks, swallowing that solitary, far-off skiier or climber and cliff descents lost in mist, thundering waterfalls… and at the same time the beaded water droplets reflecting the sun’s early light, clinging to a spider’s web, or the languid stillness of the stream beside my canoe…

STAYING FOCUSED.  God is calling to us through it – through the wildness, the vastness - and also the tiny, fragile scenes of beauty; they are saying to us, “how great thou art,” and “what is man that thou art mindful of him?”   I wanted to share my conviction with you, that in our present sinful state, the key is to go beyond nature's stunning scenes as backdrops for our vacations – and find His wooing, drawing message to you.

In one significant interaction Jesus characterized the vastness of far-flung nature as a setting of insecurity, in contrast even to a cozy animal's den – but at the same time, pointing out its value for drawing God’s children into a relationship of dependence and trust.

a certain scribe having come, said to him, 'Teacher, I will follow thee wherever thou mayest go;' and Jesus saith unto him, 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven places of rest, but the Son of Man hath not where he may lay the head.' (Mt 8:20, YLT)

Jesus’ connection to God sustained a lifestyle some might see as homelessness in its rugged, outdoor habits.  Yet, if Christ lived this way, how much more important for us to look beyond this world’s beauties to God’s sustaining power! 

The gospel record of Jesus’ prayer life in Nature also shows its key role in creating spiritual space (Mk 1:35; 6:46-8).  It drew Christ into its solitudes free of distraction and the needs of the multitude...yet again, we see it’s placement as primarily a backdrop for seeking for the truer, more awesome Beauty, the face of God.

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Join Us For the upcoming: "God's will for me: How to Study the Bible"