Look What God Can Do!
If you have an Earth Day book, April 22 feels a lot like Christmas. I happened to have a pretty annoying day yesterday -just one of those days where things kept going wrong. But because it was Earth Day, I couldn't stop smiling.
I remember a trip we took in high school to visit friends in Minnesota. They were and still are some of our favorite people, but at the time, I didn't know why we had to be going to an even colder place over spring break when all my friends were going to warm beaches. "Who needs beaches," mom an dad said, "we're going to The Mall of America!" What was this Mall of America? Well, for a 16-year-old in the 90's, it was just about the coolest destination imaginable. All thoughts of the beach left my mind when I saw all that mall had to offer.
We walked around for hours and the thing I chose to buy was a t-shirt. Vacations call for t-shirts. You have to let people at school know you went somewhere. But I didn't get a shirt that said Mall of America. I chose an Earth Day shirt. I don't really know why. I loved being outside, but I knew nothing about Earth Day. It had an earth on the front and on the back a list of things to do on the earth. Things like, "Have a picnic on it. Plant a tree on it. Drink a lemonade on it". I specifically remember the lemonade. It always drew people in with the list on the back and I wore it for years.
Who knows? Maybe God was planting a seed (pun intended) even back then. Maybe it was important step for helping me see all the wonderful things of creation and vowing to try to take care of them.
We are made to worship. God put it in our hearts so we'd worship Him. However, we often get distracted and worship what's right in front of us. We worship money, our kids, our career, our status. We're like the Israelites making a golden calf to worship because we can't see God.
But when I go outside, I see God in His creation. In the sunrise and in the wind that wiggles the trees. I see Him in the way our bodies work and in food webs and the order of the natural world. I see Him in the colors He uses. I see Him in fruits and vegetables. He give us creation to point us to Him.
This idea of creation pointing us to Him makes me think of Luke 19:37-40. Jesus was entering Jerusalem leading up to his crucifixion.
"When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!'
'Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!'
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, 'Teacher, rebuke your disciples!'
'I tell you,' he replied, 'if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'"
When I'm in creation, it feels to me like the stones are crying out. They remind me to worship the Creator. They whisper to me, "Look what God can do."
I hope you get a chance this week to spend some time worshipping the Creator. Take a hike or ride a mountain bike, but take some time to be with God and thank Him for his creation. It's how we can know Him.
Blessings!
Shannon
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