I was absorbed in conversation with someone in my office here at church when suddenly out the window I see a skunk emerge from the hedge. It casually strutted across the church property, obviously feeling very much at home here. Later that same day I saw a deer saunter across the driveway. And so far I’ve identified 28 bird species on the property. I tell you, our campus seems like a nature reserve to me.
Oh the list doesn’t stop there. Last week I was on the phone looking out the window and saw an immature Bald Eagle fly over the parking lot. And there’s a Red Fox who regularly makes an appearance on the grounds. Yesterday a ground hog came so close to my window I could count his teeth. I’m sure if I hung out here overnight I hear owls, flying squirrels, and maybe even coyotes.
We have a beautiful spot here. In fact, someone from our neighborhood asked me if it was OK for her to come and pray in the parking lot in the morning time before she heads off to work. Do you ever do that? You might find it uplifting.
Natural beauty beckons us to God like candy beckons to children. The writer of the psalm 19 gazes at the sky and exclaims:
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the skies proclaim his handiwork.
The beauty of God’s creation imparts a wholesome delight which feeds us uniquely. If we are starved of it, our souls shrink. It makes me wonder how Christians living in large urban areas survive spiritually. But probably they barely know they’re missing it. The place that the beauty of creation occupies in their souls remain vacant but unnoticed if they never knew it was possible to be filled.
How many other part of our souls are vacant yet unnoticed by us? For example, one summer Nancy and I got excited about learning wildflowers. Too geeky? Well, how about the world of jazz – that’s very cool. Or cinema. Or the world of Chinese cooking. Bach. Church history. The world of your five year-old nephew. And so on.
Well, I’ve gone a little far afield in making this point. So I’ll bring it back around to this: there is a beautiful world on RCC’s campus, and you have access to it. All it takes… is making time to be present to it.
Our God delights in leading us to the discovery of his beautiful secrets.
I think it is beautiful about the wildlife that lives on the RCC Campus and that you have actually taken the time to see it. I feel very close to God and go to the nature park quite often to sit, watch and commune with Hin, our holy Father.