Nature

God created nature to be a spectacular sight even from when it was created. The dictionary describes nature as a phenomenon of the physical world; including plants, animals, the landscape, “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. Genesis 1:9-13.” Nature was made by God to be tended to by mankind and to enjoy. Adam’s job was to tend to the Garden of Eden and to dress it as well as name the animals. The earth was made beautiful and fulfilled the image that God had for the world. Just as scripture says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalms 19:1.” God’s handywork is on display for us to see but imagine how it was untouched by the curse of sin and death. It touched nature too! After the fateful event in the Garden, God delivered this message to the first of mankind, “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; Genesis 3:17,18.” Oh my, what a beautiful thing sin destroyed. Could you imagine a rose without thorns? They know how to do that now, but it is not the same as what God made. Can you imagine a world without parasites and diseases? God made nature to be something to enjoy not something to destroy but sadly that is what is happening because of the curse. Mankind has taken the tended job to the extreme and destroying God’s beautiful creation. Please understand that there are things that nature gives us that we should take advantage of, but we should also replenish what we take as well, and we haven’t been taking very good care of tending the world God has given us. Instead of praising God and enjoying His creation we’d rather blame God for the bad season of weather or complain about where we live. I’ve always said where we live isn’t beautiful. When someone says, “Oh you’re from Missouri, it is so pretty there with the hills….” I stop them and say, “Wrong part, but yes, it is beautiful there. We live close to the Mississippi River, it is flat here and all farm land. It isn’t that pretty.” But I spoke with someone recently who said, “Oh, yes I know where you are from, and it is pretty there!” I was confused. She said, “Yes, it is flat there, but it is pretty, you guys are fortunate to see that beautiful river and have the farm land that changes the landscape.” I never looked at it that way before. We may think where we live isn’t beautiful or God skipped an area on the Earth, but He didn’t. He created it all for a reason and Mother Nature had nothing to do with it. Mother Nature is a name given to nature that gives it traits like a person. The definition says it is “nature personified as a creative and controlling force.” Well, nature does seem to have its own way but who created that way? God gave nature its ways and tendencies. God created all that nature is. We may not understand why things happen the way they do, the weather patterns, the phenomena, but that is because someone with more smarts than we have created it all. God told Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Isaiah 55:8-12.” God knows how to run things. We marvel at nature’s complexity and the efficiency, how it works in a cycle to completion. We read it in the textbooks about all the neat things that happen in nature but God spoke about it thousands of years before, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; Ecclesiastes 3:1,2.” God made things to cycle after sin came in to remind us of how fragile life is, to show us that time isn’t something to be wasted and everything with life shows us this from the leaves to a human being.
    
Nature causes people a lot of confusion and heartache and it isn’t the forecast it’s the disasters that happen. People question God since He created nature, why He allows these things to happen. Well, as it said in Isaiah, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways our higher than our ways. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I know, because I don’t. However, I do know that God has a purpose and a plan and can bring triumph out of tragedy and gratitude out of grieving. God can use nature to bring people closer to Him. Just as He did with Job.
    
Job was a good man. He wasn’t sinless but He did as the Lord wanted but his family did not. Job was prideful in that he knew he was a good man. The Bible recounts Job’s children eating and drinking wine in the oldest son’s house. God rained down judgment on Job from people taking away his camels, to fire from heaven destroying his sheep and the servants, I’m sure Job probably thought what else could go wrong and this happened. “While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Job 1:18-22.” Job lost everything except his wife in a short period of time. He lost his family, his wealth, his possessions, his livelihood, and his health. Yet Job didn’t doubt God. Job remained faithful even if his mood was overcast. Job was questioned by God after Job sought counsel other than God to why he was going through such a hard time. Another reason God might have done this is because Satan challenged God that Job would curse God if he lost everything. Maybe these questions were also for Lucifer, who also had a pride problem. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:1-7.” God kind of laid it on Job, talking to Job out of a whirlwind. God used that to get his attention and asked Job some pretty direct questions about creation and nature. Where were you? Today people are still trying to explain nature and the things of God in a manner that is ungodly from believing that the universe was created out of nothing and then something happened, to believing mankind came from some sludge out of the sea and then became some animals before it became mankind. People try all the time to discredit God’s work and words. Yet no one has had any proof of anything other than what God has said and done. As a great quote says, “Nature is but a name for an effect whose cause is God. -Leaves of Gold.”
    
This man was intelligent in the eyes of the world but seriously lacking in the realm of God. Jesus came on the scene and talked with the man named Nicodemus and used nature to get a point across, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? John 3:7-12.” We all know we cannot see the wind, we see the effects of the wind. We cannot see gravity, but we feel the effect of gravity. Just because we cannot see it doesn’t mean it does not exist. The Bible mentions this in Romans and talks about people who want to worship an ideal or the creation instead of God. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. Romans 1:20-25.” God created nature to be enjoyed, not worshipped. It should be respected not reverenced. It should be taken care of not taking care of us. We enjoy nature and see the effects of it every day whether rain or shine, wind or snow, heat or cold; God made it all for us to appreciate. Different parts of the world have different seasons and weather, some of us could only imagine what that would be like to live in darkness for 6 months, to have rain 300 days out of the year, to never see snow or to never see the desert. Yet people live and work in these conditions and can still worship God no matter what they are in. I’ve seen missionaries and the natives in church, worshipping the Lord on logs hewn for pews with flood waters up to their knees. I’ve heard about churches being destroyed in storms only to have service the next day in a tent. I’ve seen a town stand strong against a tornado and flood. We’ve read of lost lives and homes that just break our hearts and wonder, is God really the author of this? What did these people do to deserve it? We may never know, that person may not know but God knows what needs to happen. God flooded the earth because of wickedness, causing the whole world to be changed. God used fire from Heaven to burn up Sodom and Gomorrah to cleanse the world of their wickedness. And even though God allows nature to do all these things, one can still find God nearby just as Elijah did. “And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? 1 Kings 19:11-13.” That still small voice that says, “I’m here.” You may not have what you once did but you still have me.” You realize when you lose it all what you really have in strength. You realize that it’s not about possessions but who possesses you, which I pray is God Almighty. A great passage is found in Matthew 5:45 in which Jesus says, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” When it rains it usually rains on everyone, not just the wicked people or just the righteous people. The Bible says repeatedly that God is not a respecter of persons. He does watch after His own, but He also allows things to happen to His own to show those that are lost and without hope how to have hope and be found in Him. He can use the suffering of others to bring about a change in a life. He can use any means necessary which may not sound good to us but sometimes everything that happens in our life isn’t just about us. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Job wasn’t expecting all that to happen, but it made him closer to God and God blessed him for being faithful. Sometimes God uses the rains of life to get our attention and we can either sink or swim. And with that let’s look at someone who walked and wallowed. His name is Peter and he found himself caught in a storm and a Savior. “But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. Matthew 14:24-33.” What an event! Peter got to walk on the water with Jesus in the middle of a storm! But Peter looked around and saw the storm and got scared. He then put his fear before his faith and started to sink. He cried to Jesus, “Lord, save me!”
    
You may not be in a literal storm today but maybe you find yourself tossed by the waves of life and the winds of worry are upon you. You may hear the thunder of trouble and see the clouds of confusion but don’t let those worry you. Don’t focus on the storm focus on the Savior. Enjoy nature for what it is, a creation made by God for mankind to enjoy and to praise God for. Solomon, the wisest man on Earth wrote this passage about God Almighty, “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” Ecclesiasties 3:11.