“ You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” Nehimiah 9:6
I love the outdoors! I enjoy hearing the many different melodies of the birds and the buzzing of the insects. To see the sunshine on my labs’ fur making it look like polished onyx and to see the sun brighten my bird dog’s eyes making them look like liquid gold causes me great delight. Amphibians, insects, crustaceans, flowers, seed pods I relish the chance to inspect them all.
There is no comparison or substitute for basking in the sunshine, breathing in the fresh air, and playing in a body of water. Every summer, I tend to write about playing in the creek. Today is no exception.
There are a few reasons I adore the outdoors. One reason is because I see the majesty of God’s creation. The patterns, the designs, the life cycles, the beauty, the inner dependence on each other all clamor the truth of an intelligent designer. Another is because I can relax and take my time. I can move as slowly as I want to, and there is no pressure to hurry up. In fact, being outside is an invitation to slow down and appreciate all the beauty around. To escape from the hurry and scurry of the “world”.
Recently my husband and I were enjoying some time in the creek watching crawdads. They were in a tiny crack in a giant rock. The area was so small that I didn’t think anything would be living in it. However, on closer inspection, there were four crawdads that we saw and a small salamander. There was also innumerable pebbles and a current in that small area.
Because we took the time to look closer, we saw so much. Had we ignored that small crack, we would have missed that small space full of life. How many times I have passed that area because I didn’t have time to look at it, and yet when I took the time, it filled me with awe.
I feel like so much is lost in the culture of hurry. Everything ranging from health to relationships are affected by the “busy” expectation. This is definitely true of our spiritual walk. Spending time with God takes just that- time. The kind of relationship that God wants with us isn’t a few flighty prayers and a verse of the day. He wants to deep down, raw, tell-me-everything, and a my-turn-let me-talk kind of relationship that is only built over time. He wants a relationship that is so natural, so intimate that it can only have come about through a lifetime of intentionality. Jesus said, this is eternal life, that you know the Father.
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3
