Thursday, December 12, 2013

Shannon Rose: Nature 1

12/11/2013

 “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” Psalm 145:9


When we walked a portion of the Nolan, I was trying so hard to forget everything that has been consuming my mind as of late; I wanted to be completely present in the woods with no thoughts lingering back to responsibilities or concerns that otherwise dominate my conscience. At first, I could not figure out how to achieve such focus. I was trying things like honing in on characteristics of the different things around me, but it didn’t quite have the desired effect. I finally, gave up and continued walking, but kept my eyes trained on the ground without any intent of noticing something thought evoking. After a while I caught myself staring at the metal rods that ran along either side of the trail and I felt offended. I considered the fact that God created so much beauty and all humans seem to do with it is push it aside to make more room for our own selfish purposes. As I continued to study the structure of the path, I came across a recurring happening; tree roots from the wood tended to grow into the path, despite the metal rods-in some cases the roots would emerge from under the path, creating a fairly hefty obstacle for those walking the trail. I saw it at first as God’s way of fighting back against the fallen nature of the world. I saw the woods as fighting against the domestication of the area that was designed for freedom. Then, thinking back on Romans 8:28 and how it states that everything works together for the good of those who love the Lord. Creation is said to sing God’s praises (Psalm 96), so that would include the wood as well as the people of this earth, right? Even though, the human race tends to abuse what the Lord has made for us, people and nature persist to live in harmony with each other. All things work together for good; mankind and nature work together to make up our existence on this planet. There are times that man will be ignorant of nature and the consequences that will take place if they do certain things, like dumping waste in natural bodies of water. It is terrible for the environment, and there is a potential to do some serious damage to the ecosystem, but the Lord’s creation continues to provide for man, faithfully.

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