The Creative Gifts of the Creator

You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.

Psalm 65:9-12

Photo used by permission from Mark D. Roberts. All rights reserved.

I expect you know that, in recent years, California was in a horrendous drought. Throughout the state, lakes and rivers dried up. Trees died. Yards turned brown. Flowers stopped blooming. Portions of the state confronted the likelihood of running out of water completely.

Then came the “atmospheric river” of 2017. In January and February, a “river” in the atmosphere brought storm after storm to California. Lakes were filled to overflowing. The Sierra snowpack, a crucial source of year-round water for the state, was much deeper than average. The hills of the state are covered with bright green grass and millions of wildflowers. Today, while driving on a Southern California freeway, I saw Lupine so thick I was reminded of Bluebonnets in Texas. (I wasn’t able to stop on the freeway for a photo, so I’ll include a picture of Bluebonnets I took along a Texas highway.)

Psalm 65 is a great psalm for Californians in this season of ample rainfall. It celebrates God’s blessings, including God’s watering the land, filling streams with water, and drenching the furrows (65:9-10). Just like California these days, “The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness” (65:12).

To be sure, the earth is not always this glorious. Yet, even though we live in a world that is marred by sin, even though creation now “groans” with longing for the new creation still to come (Rom. 8:22), still the goodness and beauty of God’s perfect creation shines through at times. In the lavish wildflowers of a mountain meadow or in the cool breeze of an early autumn evening or in the pounding waves of an isolated beach, we glimpse God’s grandeur, his artistic vision.

Those who worship nature rightly delight in the glory of the world, but wrongly worship the creation rather than the Creator. The natural world is indeed glorious and worthy of praise. Yet it is meant to point us to the one whose glory immeasurably exceeds that of this world, the creator who is worthy of endless praise.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

When have you been impressed, even overwhelmed by the beauty of nature?

What aspects of the natural world lift your heart to praise God? Why?

PRAYER:

Gracious God, you are the Creator of all things. This world in all of its majesty and beauty is your work of art. And though our sin has disfigured your masterpiece, even so the grandeur of your creation shines through. It reminds us of who you are and calls us to worship you.

Thank you, dear Lord, for the gift of creation. Thank you for making us so that, like yourself, we might perceive and delight in beauty. Thank you for the lush pastures of the wilderness and the hillsides that blossom with joy.

All praise be to you, God our Creator, for the world you have made. How we look forward to seeing this world when it is fully renewed in the age to come! But, in the meanwhile, may we enjoy the goodness of creation, and may it turn our hearts to you. Amen.

Explore more at the Theology of Work Project online commentary: The Wonders of Nature and the Wonders of God