You who walk along the road

This weekend the studens are all away. There was no church service here, so I decided to have a nice lie in and then breakfast in bed. I love bed. I did, however, decide to make good use of the time while I was lazing about and listened to a podcast of a church service from Imago Dei Community church in Portland Oregon. If anyone's read any Donald Miller books, you'll know he attends that church and mentions it a few times in his writing. Anyway, this service was an interview between Donald Miller and a photographer called John MacMurray (he also gets a mention in the books). Apart from the fact that I thought it was cool that a church would have a sermon about photography, what they said was quite cool too. They talked about land being the first thing that was created in Genesis. How God has formed incredible and beautiful landscapes/natural events, to cause us to go 'wow' and then think of how much bigger/greater/'wow-er' He is, or in other words to worship Him. That when viewing a remarkable scene we often become aware of our own insignificance and aloneness and that this is an invitation for a relationship to God who alone can meet our needs for significance and fellowship. They also said that man is the only creature that responds to nature in an appreciative way, that wherever a human being is born or whatever social background they might have come from, we will all respond to a beautiful scene as being something beautiful and that animals only think of nature in functional terms, the point being it was created for us as an indication of the beauty and splendour of God and an invitation to a relationship with Him.

Yesterday was sunny and frosty until all of a sudden fog rolled in from the sea like thick soup that swallowed everything whole. Today is sunny and clear and frosty again. Spiders webs are dangling from every fence post, sparkling in the sunlight, sagging and wet as they thaw. The snowdrops and crocuses and daffodils that were so confident to pop up ahead of their time are suddenly stopped in their tracks, gripped by an icy chill that won't let them move either back or forward. Sheep are soggy and fat and grey, dozing in the sun to warm themselves as piles of silage steam. Just a few things I remember from my walk around the loop.

I know I'm priviliged to live in a place surrounded by nature. You might live in a city. You might spend your days surrouned by industry and pollution and noise. You might just never think about these things. Today I'd like to challenge you, go into your garden for 10 mins and just listen, just have a look at what's going on. If you don't have a garden, open the window. If your widow looks out on a wall, stand outside and look at the sky (yes, the neighbours will think you've lost it, but maybe they'll have a look too).

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." Psalm 19:3

what's He saying...
...how will you answer?