It is strange because most of us do probably observe the play from the standpoint of being in the audience.  But when it gets down to it, we are also small bit players that have roles within the various scenes that God allows us to be cast in.  When I am in it, at one time myself is able to view the scene with all of nature and at the same time, with all of nature I am a part of the play.  Maybe this is how God, nature, and myself interact together.  God the creator or playwright I believe intends that all creation experience these different ways of interaction, it is but for me and for us to pay attention.

     We, the created ones have the opportunity to just sit back and wonder or be amazed or we can realize that we take part in the very play.  We get to sense God from different vantage points if we choose to notice.  And because of that our experience with God can be greater.  I suspect that this opportunity is always taken by other created things and that we as humans are the ones who choose to experience this or not, to brng glory to God or not.  The scripture says that if we don’t cry out that even the rocks will.

     When we are drawn towards God in these times spent in nature, there is this desire that wells up within us to go deep with God.  I know that many times I ask God to reveal more of who I am, more of who He is, and more of who I am in relation to him.  Though is seems introspective, I am trying to be real before God and with myself.

     From what vantage point do you observe this great Play?  How are you drawn to go deep with God?

     Abraham Heschel States:

“Awarness of the divine begins with wonder.  It is the result of what man does with his higher incomprehension.  The greatest hindrance to such awareness is our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental cliches.  Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is therefore a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is”.

     I would say that most of us have experienced this sense of wonder, or “radical amazement” as Heschel put it.  My time in nature is certainly enjoyed from the perspective of the beauty of it all, but I am continually drawn beyond to what is greater that creation itself.  I am drawn to the creator of us and all of nature.  Perhaps my experience is from and overwhelming sense of peace  or from a point of deep resonation with what God cares about, but there is a strong connection.  Because the place that I usually gravitate to is the bay, I often times have this sense of connection to nature and for people who dwell within the skyline of the city in my view.  There is a “simultaneity”, an intersection of both people and of nature and I begin to pray for those that I cannot see who must be dwelling in the city.  I have this sense that God is including me in what is of importance to Him, and I at once can become deeply concerned with what God is concerned with.  There is a sense of pleasure in being with God, but it does not end there, I am communing with God.  There is some sort of unspoken dialogue with God, love is there, and at some level I am one with the one who created me and loves me.  Perhaps I am at once also connected with the others of  creation.  All of us created beings or things united in some harmonious way before the one who made me and holds everyone and everything together.  Whatever it is, certainly God becomes very real to me in the exchange.  I am allowed to see a glimpse of God’s glory and at the same time be a part of what brings Glory to Him.

     What do those times of connection stir up in you?  What wonder?  What sense of God’s glory?

Quote: Abraham Heschel, J., God in Search of Man: a Philosophy of Judaism. pg. 46

     As I reflect further, there is a particular place in nature that I am drawn to, and it usually  involves the ocean.  This is where I go when I desire to think or pray or read.  It is also the place that I may run to when there is some deep issue or circumstance that I am dealing with.  Even if my time is limited, just being able to see a large body of water is helpful to me.  So it is not unusual that my times in nature bring me to water.  It could be calm and still or during a storm, I am drawn over and over again to God.  It doesn’t seem to matter what the weather conditions are, the immenseness of it, the light dancing off of it and even the sound of it, brings me to the one who created it and me.

     Ususally, my closest access to the water is the San Francisco Bay, and from my vantage point there is another dynamic that comes into play and that is the skyline of San Francisco.  Though in nature I am still within boundaries of cities, and I can not help but to consider the human parts of God’s creation.  It is all interconnected for me and I am but a small part of it.  It feels good to make this connection, to know that there is more out there that cries out to the creator.  Sallie McFague, writes:

“Perhaps this is the way that we see the presence of God in the world and are nurtured and renewed by it–not through feelings of oceanic oneness with nature, but by paying attention, listening to, learning about the specialness, the difference, the detail of the “wonderful life” of what we are a part”.

So at one level I am out there by the water and I do feel the oneness, but there is more to it and it takes me taking a longer look, and being in dialogue with the creator.  Paying attention, being inquisitive, asking questions, seeing the total picture and then being drawn into the wonder of it all.

     Where is it that you connect with God?   Where do you find the  wonder of it all?  How does that moment in time impact you?

Quote: Sallie McFague, “Should a Christian Love Nature?”, The Spire. Vol. 15, No.3 Spring/Summer, 1993