I’m blessed to live in a pine forest. We have several towering pines in our yard. One day, I was talking with my boys about the trees.

“What direction does a tree point?” I asked them. 

“Up,” they responded. 

“That’s right,” I said, “When you look up and see that big, blue sky stretching from east to west, and you see tiny birds soaring through the clouds and the moon way out there, it makes you realize how big this world is. And if the world is big, how much bigger is God who created it?” 

We talked a bit more—not too much, because my boys are 9 and 10 years old, so too much talking is a no-no—but we talked about how those trees are like arrows, directing our gaze upward so we can see the big picture, so we’re reminded of God. 

“Trees also have roots that point down,” one of my boys observed with a sly expression on his face. Trying to throw me a curveball, eh?  

“Yep,” I said, “The roots dig deep into the earth, and they point downward, reminding us of our foundation, what we’re built upon. The sky reminds us of the big things, but it’s also good to look at the small things, too. Tiny bugs, seeds, pebbles, grass. No matter how far we look outward—way out into the universe—and no matter how far we look inward—into the smallest components of a cell—we can’t solve all of the mysteries. It reminds us of how great God is to be the Creator of all that.”

“You can make a lesson out of anything,” my son said, more in jest than admiration of my ability to pull metaphors from nature. 

But Psalm 19:1 tells us that nature is a metaphor for God:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

I live in a pine forest now, but I used to live on the Pacific Coast. How many times did my husband and I pull off a coastal road to watch a sunset? Sometimes, we’d be at a viewpoint with other people, watching the sunset together, and do you know what everyone invariably did when the sun slipped below the horizon? They clapped. When I clapped, I clapped for God and the glory He declared for me and for the world with that magnificent sunset.

Do you have a garden? Can you see the glory of God there? I’m not much of a green thumb, but when I do grow plants, it’s like a miracle when they start sprouting. Just watching a bee crawl around inside a flower, watching a squirrel chip away at a pinecone, turning it over and over in its clawlike hands, watching a lizard blink its tiny eyes…it’s remarkable. 

Do you have a telescope? My husband and I went to a stargazing festival once, and it was amazing to look through telescopes and see faraway planets, stars, and moons. Someone set them in motion. They did not simply materialize and fall into perfect orbits. They are part of a grand design. God’s grand design. 

Why did God create a beautiful, well-ordered, infinite world? Because He is a God of beauty, order, and infinite power. The world reflects Him. 

Last summer, I had to drag my potted plants under the porch because a doozy of a hailstorm was hacking away at our mountain. During monsoon season, we sometimes get bone-shaking thunderstorms that take out our power lines. In the dry months, our community goes on high alert when the fire danger is high. You can see black, barren stretches where wildfires blazed out of control. Even these dangers reflect the glory of God. I feel his greatness and power and my own insignificance when the heavens crash and the earth shakes. 

God has never revealed Himself to me in a vision or a dream, but He reveals Himself to me every day through the world He created. Romans 1:20 says it like this: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

That is some tough King James right there. Here’s what I think it means:

• “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen…” God, whom we can’t see, created the world, which we can see. 
• “…being understood by the things that are made…” God gave humans the ability to understand His creation through observation.
• “…even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” The more we discover about God’s world, the more it points to His divine power and authority; therefore, we have no excuse NOT to believe in Him. 

It’s easy to get out of touch with nature in our modern times. I, for one, am not an avid camper or homesteader. But I do recognize that time spent in nature is good for the soul. I thank God that He created a world designed to reflect His character so that we can know Him better simply by going outside.