Look On Nature

‘When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?  And the son of man, that thou visitest him?’  Psalms 8:3-4 (KJV)

Bishop Robert Solomon opined that one of the spiritual disciplines is to train the soul by immersing oneself in nature like taking quiet walks in the picturesque countryside.

We had a family holiday in Wales once, Pat, Debbie, John and I in Oct 2004. I insisted on making a detour to visit the ruins of Tintern Abbey. I needed to see the hills that rise up from the valley of the River Wye. This was the nature scene that captivated the poet William Wordsworth when he wrote the poetic essay ‘Tintern Abbey.’ I studied the poem in school when I was 15 years old. It so inspired me that I had an urge to stand in awe of the natural surroundings, as viewed from the ruins of Tintern Abbey.

Since reading ‘Tintern Abbey,’ I have learned to view nature enrapt by worshipful thoughts and attitudes. Wordsworth wrote:

“For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes

The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue. And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still

A lover of the meadows and the woods,

And mountains; and of all that we behold.”

The Bishop and I know the secret that God is present in nature. Let us go out of our way to find those sublime moments that awaken our hearts and reach our souls. When surrounded by the simple beauty of the woods or the splendid panoramas of the Grand Canyon we will sense the subtle presence of God. It is a sweet and gentle presence. We come out of that experience matured, elevated, chastened and subdued.

When nature confronts us, we also sense the infinite gap between man and God; just how miniscule we are and how infinitely great God is. Like the Psalmist who contemplated the cosmos, we are left to wonder just why God would even consider us. 

"Reading about nature is fine, but when a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he experiences more than what is gathered from books, for they speak the voice of God." This quote from George Washington Carver, repeats the same realisation as found in Job, 

'But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.' Job 12:7-10

Yes, nature brings the realisation of the presence of God so we can confidently declare, "All things bright and beautiful; all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all!” Listen to this lovely song by John Rutter!

 

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colours,

He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,

The river running by,

The sunset and the morning,

That brightens up the sky;

The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,

He made them every one;

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well.

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

Lionel

Updated article. 1st Published 27 Jul 2009

Let Everything That Has Breath Praise The Lord

'The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.' Psalms 19:1

No one can ever look at the beautiful sunset and not recognise the God behind that beauty. Yes beautiful scenes in nature often causes us to be uplifted and praise God who is the Creator. This realisation, this moment of inspiration can be so breathtaking that it can bring tears to our eyes!

The Hebrew word, Kavod which is translated as glory, splendour or beauty actually means rich or heavy. The Jews would say a rich man is 'heavy with wealth' in the same way we might say a rich man is 'loaded.' The idea behind kavod is that when we experience God's glory, we are experiencing the weight of His goodness, the weight of His beauty, the weight of His mercy and the weight of His compassion. A beautiful sunset at a beach is an example of the richness of God's beauty. Ref 1

I love to travel and experience, firsthand, the wonders of the earth, the beauty of God's creation and feel an affinity to them. These are moments of closeness to God, a recognition that behind the spectacular field of daffodils is God's handiwork. William Wordsworth recognised this sublime and creative presence when he wrote:

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Nature is a gift. Nature informs us who we are, the more we appreciate God's creation the more we will know ourselves. We become aware of the preciousness of life. Look At The World, a song composed by John Rutter celebrates this:

Look at the World: Everything all around us

Look at the world: and marvel everyday

Look at the world: So many joys and wonders

So many miracles along our way

Praise to the O Lord for all creation

Give us thankful hearts that we may see

All the gifts we share and every blessing

All things come of Thee

This realisation that God gives us the beauty of His creations invokes a emotional drive to praise and Christians surely love to praise. In recent years the Praise Worship as taken a life of its own; driving up the Christian music industry. But engaging in praise is not new,  in 1221, St Francis of Assisi wrote this canticle:

All creatures of our God and King,

Lift up your voice and with us sing,

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,

And praise the Spirit, Three in One!

In 18th Century England, William Wilberforce wrote, "When engaged in worship, our souls seemed to become ignited with rapture" (Ref 2). It's spontaneous and often happens when we perceive a wonder of nature and then we can emphatically state, "Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!"

Lionel

Ref 1: Dave Adamson. 52 Hebrew Words, Every Christian Should Know. Christian Arts Gift

Ref 2: William Wilberforce. Real Christianity, 1797 revised and updated by Dob Beltz Regal Books 2006. 

Updated. 1st Published 30 Aug 2020

Our Hymn Of Joyful Praise

As The Waters Cover The Sea

"For the earth will be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea." Isaiah 11:8

I had the opportunity to enjoy a morning’s freshness, staring out into the far horizon of the Adriatic Sea from the balcony of a cruise ship. The huge cruise ship seemed so puny when set in the vast expanse of water. Looking at the sun rising out of the distant horizon against the deep blue colour of the sea, I was deeply moved by the thought of the greatness of God. God made this wonderful and vast Blue Planet, Earth, on which we live. 

A New Year has dawned, a new world is expected. Man will expect to shape this new world. The advances in science and technology will astound us beyond all imagination. This world will become an easy a place to live in. That is when humanistic tendencies will get the better of us and we will pride ourselves with the greatness of Man. Encouraged by discoveries that will unravel the mysteries of nature and inventions that improve our lives, some of us may go so far as to posit that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or god. 

Nothing can be further from the truth. Whilst the achievements of the human race deserve some recognition, we should be careful not to leave God out of the equation. For despite all the advancements in science and philosophy, we have not solved the inherent problems of the human nature; of pride, greed, selfishness and brutality. To some extent, man can punish faults and write new laws. Hopefully, society can hope to become more egalitarian by community effort and education. However, in the end, all these will still fail because the human heart is deceitful and inherently wicked 

'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

and will corrupt all noble intentions. 

There are tragic stories of human excesses committed on innocent victims. I remember one in 2002, a sad story of a young Indian girl who was brutally gang-raped in New Delhi. In Singapore, we are fortunate to be shielded from the violence and gangland behaviours that often pervade the inner cities of some of our neighbouring countries. Nevertheless, this particular tragedy struck home because the poor girl died in one of our hospitals. The Indian government had referred her for medical management in Singapore in view of her critical condition but to no avail. Alongside India, all of Singapore mourned this needless death and repudiated the senseless violence and the depravity of the men who perpetrated this heinous crime. Yet these gang rapes continue unabated in India.

Our saving grace is that God is present. This is still 'our Father's world'. God made it. Another ancient voyager once wrote 

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" Psalm 8:3-4. 

So, as I contemplated the vast expanse of the Adriatic Sea and realising how small we humans are, I prayed that "the earth will be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea" The Bible tells us that this reverential fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 

We need to look to God. Can our fear and knowledge of God change our hearts? Can we live as friends, brother, sister, parent, child? This should be the prayer for the new year. John Rutter put it better in his canticle 'For the Beauty of the Earth'.

For the beauty of the earth

For the glory of the skies

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies

Over and around us lies

Lord of all to thee we raise

This our hymn of joyful praise

For the joy of human love

Brother, sister, parent, child

Friends on earth and friends above

For all gentle thoughts and mild

  

Happy New Year!

Lionel

Updated. 1st Published on 1 Jan 2020

Take My Yoke

Take My Yoke Upon You: Missio Dei 

 

 ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Matthew 11:29-30

When you are a cancer patient such as Pat, my wife, you carry a concern, a burden, that weighs heavy on you. This burden is also carried by the whole family and close friends.

Life is especially overwhelming for Pat this past year. But I notice that throughout the year, while receiving many cycles of chemotherapy and stem cells transplants; despite being admitted to hospital for five times and attending outpatient treatments about 2-3 times a week, Pat continues to be in high spirits, confident that the Lord Jesus will take care of her.

In these trying periods, Pat learned to transfer and share her burdens with Jesus, her Lord and Saviour.

‘Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.’ Psalm 55:22

Pat, the family and friends have learnt to harness ourselves to the ‘yoke’ of Christ

Farmers used a wooden yoke to strap the shoulders of two animals such as oxen or horses together so that they could combine strength to pull a load that would have been too much for one animal to carry.

Jesus Christ assures us that His yoke is easy. We can only surmise that He is taking on the heavier lifting; He takes on the larger share of the load. That way we lift off our burdens and give it to the Lord and Christ lifts it off our shoulders.

In hitching our shoulders to the yoke of Christ we learned:

• To move in the same direction as Christ, to be on the same path
• Not to carry the whole burden ourselves but to lean on Christ
• Being closely yoke, we become refreshed and can carry more than we ever thought we could.

That is why Saint Paul and all the early followers of Christ can say, despite persecution and hardships, sometimes leading to martyrdom:

‘We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.’ 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Poor farmers often cannot afford oxen or horses; these farmers will yoke themselves to the plough to till the land. So when Jesus spoke of being yoked and carrying the weight upon His shoulders, His hearers in 1st Century Judea and Samaria, understood and emphatise completely. But Jesus meant that He carries the weight of the whole world not just a plough. He welcomes us who are burdened and heavy laden to be yoked to Him. 

There is no problem too big God solve it. He will help us lift that burden. He will carry you.

 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ Matthew 11:28

There is no problem too big God cannot solve it

There is no mountain too tall He cannot move it
And there is no storm too dark God cannot calm it
There is no sorrow too deep He cannot soothe it

If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders
I know my brother that He will carry you
And if He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders
I know my sister that He will carry you

‘For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.’ Psalm 62:5-7

Lionel