Nature and Scripture

"While I see evidence of God in nature, I would not know the person of Jesus Christ without reading the Bible. I cannot look at the stars and know that God wants us to turn away from wickedness. I cannot marvel at a sunset and feel the pain God felt as Jesus hung on the cross." — Caroleah Johnson, Upper Room Daily Devotional

Yes. This is great. I've always gotten agitated when people talk about seeing God in nature. Honestly, I wasn't terribly nice about it for a period of my life, and I had to be taken down a notch, which in part took the form of me finding peace at a monastery in the middle of the New Mexican desert—a place where God reveals himself, in no uncertain terms, in rock and river and sky. But I have continued to long for a way to articulate my concern when someone tells me they experience God primarily in nature.

There is nothing wrong with that. The devotional I pulled that quote from draws on Psalm 19: "The heavens are telling the glory of God." It's not that nature isn't a valid means of connecting to the eternal; it's just that our meetings with God in nature and other settings need to be informed by a familiarity with and understanding of Scripture. Jesus is universal and particular—though his face can be seen in any person or natural wonder, we need to know the story of the actual man who lived and died if we are to draw any meaning from that connection.

The kicker: as much as I've complained about relying too heavily on stars and flowers for a God connection, I don't read my Bible nearly enough to make up for that. It's something I'm working on, more intentionally now than at other times in my life. This reflection is one more bit of motivation for me to be in the Word more.