Eyes to See - A Heart to Respond Yesterday I announced to a friend, “Today is the first day of summer.” Of course it wasn’t. Summer 2006 won’t officially be born until June 21st. Nevertheless, it was the first day of the year when the mercury in our Minotian thermometers sat suspended in the nineties, and if that doesn’t make it summer, I don’t know what does. And now that the true cultural realities of summer are upon us - hot days, green grass, sandy beaches, late evening cook-outs and sunburns - I’ve been asking myself, “Will we truly notice them and let them speak to us of their Creator, or will we simply let time march on toward September without giving the profound expressions of life springing forth all around us the second thought they deserve ?” The longer I walk with God, the more convinced I am that He created summer as a special season of worship in our calendar year, for it, more than any other, effervesces with living examples flowing from His magnificent Mind and His creative Hand. I can’t help but think that it must have been summer when the psalmist forced his eyes away from the colors, sights and sounds of creation long enough to write, “ How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and small….may the LORD rejoice in His works….May my meditation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the LORD.” (Psalm 104:24-25, 31, 34) All through the Bible this close connection between the colorful life we see bursting forth all around us and worship of God is clear. I thought about that while reading a recent issue of National Geographic . When we lived in Iowa I was an avid reader, but when we moved to Minnesota in 2000 I let my subscription run out. Then back in December I told Terri, “Please get me a National Geographic subscription for Christmas.” And she did! I’m glad because the probing articles and resplendent photography reveal the awesome creatorship of God like few things I know. For instance, in an article entitled “ California’s Wild Crusade,” journalist Virginia Morell describes in detail the rich biodiversity of our most populous state. We all know it contains more people than any other, but did you know that the same is true of plant species? More than 2,100 plants are found no where else on planet earth! That includes ‘candleholder live-forevers’ - long and bulbous plants of a succulent variety which grow horizontally out from canyon walls to increase their likelihood of pollination. A striking, green photograph on another page shows a patch of growing ‘cobra lilies’ which are not only shaped like the hooded head of a cobra ready to strike but prove just as deadly. Luring transient insects into their vegetant hoods with a hidden reservoir of sweet smelling nectar, these lethal lilies capture and eat their entomological victims for lunch to increase their own store of phosphorus and nitrogen. Perhaps most stunning of all are California’s endemic trees. That includes, of course, its giant redwoods, which often measure more than three hundred fifty feet tall and twenty feet around. The oldest one on record was planted 200 years before Christ was born. But that’s a mere adolescent compared to California’s bristlecone pine trees, earth’s oldest known living things, some of which are more than 4,000 years old. Just think of it, Abraham could have used one of them for a tent pole. Now that’s old! Older still are the Swiss Alps featured in another article, documenting their importantly symbiotic and sometimes adversarial relationship with the human communities which have dotted their valleys for thousands of years. Their mesmerizing heights extending more than 74,000 square miles through the heart of Europe, the Alps are been a life-line for the Swiss. The winter snow on the mountain heights become life-giving streams watering the valleys in the spring. Still, the Alps are not a tame mountain range. Blizzards blast through their passes at unexpected moments, burying unwary travelers in a white grave. No wonder mere mortals like us have beheld them with reverent awe for so long. Their power, given by their Creator, demands our respect. Just think, those mountains towered over the earth even before the Lord breathed life into Adam - before the first trace of sin was seen in the world. Impressed? In awe? Now consider this: “Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” (Psalm 90:2) Summer is bursting forth all around us. Have you noticed the sweet smell of the purple lilacs? Have you watched the light green grass of spring turn its dark, rich summer hue? Have you sat back and just listened—to robins returned from the South, to morning doves cooing high in the branches, to the ripple of the Souris River running over rocks or the rush of the wind through full-bodied leaves? Summer calls us to all these and more—not just to see with our eyes but notice with our hearts, for the Hand of our Living God is alive and His voice calls us to see Him through His creation and worship. Summer will soon be gone. The worship service has just begun. Open your eyes, awaken your heart and enter in.
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