I just stumbled across a page detailing the "distance" modern man has from nature. The contrast was made of early men and women who worshiped natural elements as gods because of their mystery and power, to modern man's worship of other items which are powerful, if not mysterious. The question was posed, what element of nature still draws you (the reader) in to wonder, meditation, and even worship of the one true God?
I began to think about my fascination with nature, because, if you know me at all, you've been present for at least one instance where I've been staring at the sky in appreciation or awe, while everyone else has moved on. I do admit that the natural world intrigues me to no end, especially storms and water. Why, I asked myself, is water so particularly fascinating? I have stared at many a still river or slow moving creek just as much as the ocean waves, and been stunned. In fact, it is usually the streams and rivers that most entice me.
Well, to be a bit scientific (and yet vague), how does that mass move? I mean, really. There's a rock... not moving. There's a tree... not really moving. Sure, they can move. Trees grow, so that's another topic, but for the purpose of this point, solid masses can be moved, with the proper force. But there's water, just moving right along. Gravity is moving it. The moon, for heaven's sake, moves water! What? You can't tell me that this is not perplexing, inspiring, and awesome.
I'll never be able to "run my hands" through swiftly moving dirt. At least, that is not a naturally occurring situation. There is just something so intense to me about the way water can and does move. I think of the many times I've seen a water-creature or water-monster depicted in cartoons; they always have that great element of being able to re-form and re-amass after going around something or someone, or after something has been thrown into them or through them. Water does that. It passes around, over and through, and keeps going.
However, the reason beneath the reason that this is stirring and impressive is because of who it points to: our Creator. If lightning and thunder and stormy winds and earthquakes and other natural powers draw our attention to the greater mystery of the world, cannot even the simple existence of these elements that surround us act as the threshold for our entry into praise? How often have we stepped into the shower, into the bath tub, into a pond or lake or the ocean, and breathed that sigh of "thank God"? The feeling of warmth, safety, cleansing, and surrounding is something that is consoling and invigorating. It would seem that this ability of something so simple to reveal something transcendent, is a gift.
This is what I see in the rushing waters. I see power, but power that has been given by the Father to his children. I see comfort, that cleanses and renews, somehow freeing us from unseen darknesses that we cling to. I see freedom, to celebrate and rejoice and praise Him, despite the rest of the world. I see the story of love that God has described for us, the story of our own journey. That water begins as a tiny rain drop, and over time, it joins the community of the world's drops until it is part of the rushing river that forms and carves out the great gorges and canyons. The earth's surface is shaped by the water. We, too, enter in as our own little selves, but have the potential to form and change those we love and the world around us. We share in that power, in that newness, and in that freedom. We too ought to be signs for the world - signs of the power of God, of the mercy of God and of the love of God, given freely to us.
Of course, if you take this symbolism to the next step, the Sacrament of Baptism is perhaps more intelligible than ever. It was Christ who instituted this Sacrament, with the sign of the pouring of water in the name of the Holy Trinity as the new birth of the Christian into the life of the Church.
I don't mean to be overly naturalistic or "hippie," but I do believe that nature holds a bounty of beauty and mystery that may draw us into a deeper understanding of reality. That is what I love. Reality has the layers of the seen and the unseen, and it is those seen things that can often invite us to know what is unseen. Water can point to and partake in the unveiling of God, just as all of his great creation can do!
Perhaps we will keep the Lord more on our minds and hearts as we go through each day, and seek to praise him in the small moments of passing clouds and rushing streams.
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