Creation is the first Bible

This is the title of one of the readings from last week as I continue to work my way through the daily devotions of "A Spring Within us" by Richard Rohr.

He quotes Romans where Paul writes:

"What can be known about God is perfectly plain, since God has made it plain.  Ever since God created the world, God's everlasting power and divinity, however invisible have been there for the mind to see in the things God has made."  Romans 1: 19-20

And Richard Rohr mades the point that everyday we are given a natural way to connect with God  that is not dependent on the Bible, or education or even belief in a specific religion.  It is the gift of this world that is always there for us to see, to contemplate, to respect (re-spect - see a second time)

Saturday I made a point of going to one of my favorite places to walk in nature - the wooded 1 mile path at Sharon Woods.  I usually walk it twice - sometimes stopping to sit on a bench to just contemplate what I see.  Afterwards, I usually spend time by the lake and am often mesmerized by the water, the sky, and the ducks and geese.  Earlier in the week Rohr had quoted Paul again who wrote "From the beginning until now, the entire creation has been groaning in ne great act of giving birth."  Or in other words - when we look at creation we see a mirror of our own condition.  God creates things that continue to create and recreat themselves from the "inner dynamism" God has planted within them.

So, Saturday I had a beautiful time by myself on a warm day in which I spent time with the february bare trees, and the brown of the woods and the signs of autumn that was gone and spring that was coming.  Always, I find myself thinking that we are always in a state of "becoming."  We are, of course becoming older which is a distinctly mixed blessing - but we are also becoming - hopefully - wiser, more aware, and creative .  At least I pray that is the case.

This week we are blessed with warmer than usual weather and I am grateful for the opportunity to admire the variety of God's handiwork.  There was a song that came to me as I walked - "everything is beautiful - in its own way."  After a vacation in the Caribbean and time spent in the southwest, one doesn't usually think of a bare forest in Ohio as beautiful. What I keep learning is that if I shut the noise out and truly open myself up to the air, to the trees, the wonder of the sky and the animals I encounter the holiness of creation.  Evertthing belongs and everything is beautiful.