It’s cruel I know, but this blog is being typed at the foot
of the Grand Tetons, which are a collection of mountain peaks in south-west
Wyoming. They rise thousands of feet from an open plain and are as majestic as
they are tall. They have height and rise to a point to proclaim, ‘I am a REAL
mountain’.
Sabbatical in North America, including Canada and ten U.S
states, has provided many of these ‘selah’ moments to stop, look and
contemplate the greatness of God in his creation. Even something as small as a wildflower
on a hiking trail declares the beauty and immanence of a God who is constantly
speaking.
Each National Park we have visited begins with a regulation stop
at the Visitors Centre. Our routine starts by watching the park’s orientation
DVD. They are all 22 minutes long and are generally very well done. Although,
if it comes at the end of a long drive, I sometimes miss the final 21 minutes. Seriously
though, they are of excellent quality, except for one thing, they focus on the
science and geology of the region with special attention to “glaciers”. I have
decided that there is a word starting with ‘G’ that is the answer for
everything, and it’s not God! Yes, glaciers are claiming credit for majestic
mountains, towering waterfalls, rushing rivers, wide open meadows and valleys, and
of course displaced boulders that end up in weird areas. Some happened tens of
thousands of years ago; others millions of years ago. If it weren’t for these
glaciers, we simply wouldn’t have what we have to marvel at. I, like everyone
else at the end of the 22 minute film, leave in awe and wonder to the ‘Big G’.
Now of course, I’m being facetious to make a point, and I’m
not naïve enough to believe that glaciers aren’t responsible for some weird and
wonderful geological formations, and of course I don’t expect the National
Parks to conclude each doco with a rendition of “How Great Thou Art”…BUT, I do
like to take many moments in the day to look down, look around, look up, and
say, “God, you are amazing – your power, your creativity, your wisdom, your
strength, your love and your faithfulness are all around me.” (Psalm 8, Psalm
19, and Romans 1).
Sometime I’d like to write devotional material that would
have a picture of some aspect of God’s creation on one side, followed by a
bible based devotion on the other. For it is certainly true that the heavens
declare the ‘glory of God’.
Just near to where I am sitting is a plaque in honour of Fritiof
Fryxell who wrote a book on the Teton mountain landscape. He reflects
specifically on part of the range called the “Cathedral Group”:
‘These peaks have been
called the Cathedral Group…more evident here than in many of the great
cathedrals of men is the Gothic note. It is seen in the profiles of countless
firs and spruces congregated like worshippers on the lower slopes; it reappears
higher in the converging lines of spire rising beyond spire; it attains supreme
expression in the figures of the peaks themselves that, towering above all
else, with pointed summits direct one’s vision and thoughts yet higher.’
The study of glaciers and science in general, doesn’t need
to be in conflict with the Christian faith, but when any field of study becomes
an end in itself we end up worshipping the ‘created’, rather than the ‘Creator’.
That’s a temptation for all nature lovers, including myself, but Fryxell’s “pointed
summits” call us higher to the source of life itself.
