My son and I went for a one hour walk around our neighborhood yesterday. In most neighborhoods that might seem a little boring. But in ours, the walk is like a living tribute to our Creator. We walked down to the woods at the end of the street. Most of the huge douglas fir trees stood there, towering into the sky and reaching for heaven… sunlight streaming like a wave through their gently swaying branches above. Some, however, lay toppled on the rainforest floor… massive columns of wood carving paths in the underbrush. I stopped to ponder how many elephant slugs lost their lives on the sad day these came down.
Screeeeech! Screeeech! "Look, Dad!" Benji shouted, pointing straight above us. Two massive bald eagles perched about 20 feet over us, a bit alarmed that we would be in their territory. Benji’s mouth was dropped wide and silent, but his body was wriggling with joy as the eagles kept screeching at us. We kept moving on into the bush…
Soon we were scrambling through thorns and blackberry bushes. I was about to get frustrated when Benji exclaimed, "This is a great adventure, Dad!" I smiled in my heart and had to agree. So I paused to pray, "Thank you, God, for making all of this for us to enjoy."
After the thorns came a clearing… the pond. Beautiful and still… until the ducks got upset. Beyond that we walked to French Creek. From there we looked at the fishing docks and the straight and the mountains of the mainland in the horizon. Gorgeous. We followed the clear creek and stopped under a bridge for highway 19A to skip rocks. Then we moved on to run on some bicycle tracks made in the forest… and then back home.
Creation sings. It sings a beautiful song about our Creator. Psalm 98 says, "Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise! Let the fields and their crops burst forth with joy! let the trees of the forest rustle with praise before the Lord!" Psalm 148 says, "Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you twinkling stars! Praise him, skies above! Praise him, vapors in the clouds! Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being." In Luke 17, as Jesus entered Jerusalem he mentioned that "the stones along the road" could "burst into cheers" for him.
"To the Hebrew mind, the creation raises a cacophony of praise to the Creator… Created things, by their very being and nature, give praise to God." (Vander Zee: Christ, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, IVP, 2004, pp. 17-18)
I think tomorrow we’ll walk down to the beach, 2 blocks away. It’s been rough living in Parksville! To adjust to the transition to Calgary, we’ll just have to take a walk in Banff next week!