The Natural God

British Columbia has been advertising for tourist through the emotions of Nature.  There is a rhythm and serenity to that beauty they claim and we should all be better off if we spend lots of money by partaking of their particular kind of nature.

It’s not that I don’t agree, in fact I do agree but in a slightly different way, especially when they talk of that rhythm that seems to permeate all living things; I do believe there is a commonality in nature that affects us all and motivates us toward whatever Nature is trying to tell us.  The problem, and there is always a problem, is that the term Nature is simply a more agreeable way to acknowledge God, without giving praise to the being of all creation. 

The issue is in the advertisement and the proclamation of nature without regard to the creative sense and design and the overall rhythm and beauty that was purposely implanted for our benefit.  Nature is not a being, it is not alive, nor does it have purpose or rhythm or beauty.  Nature is the combination of all things within the confines of our environment.  Nature does not include space or the other planets, they may have a nature but their nature will not be natural to us. 

Nature is the plants, the animals, the mountains, the valleys and seas; it includes the beauty and ugliness of all that our world has to offer.  Nature is the oceans and breezes, the hurricanes and the tornadoes, the earthquakes and volcanoes and the ebb and flow of the tides.  Nature has been ebbing and flowing from before man and the clockwork of its machinations will continue on schedule with or without mans interference.

The idea that nature has a rhythm can be plainly seen in the movement of the trees when a breeze rushes by.  One can see the tempo as a butterfly flits and flies up and down or the fish in great schools undulate and vacillate in one massive form.  The slow massive growth and destruction of mountains and the rapid decline of melting ice can all be witnessed and recorded as act of regularity and reliability honed from the hand of time itself, bringing to pass the understanding of what nature really is, A Testament of God and his artistry.

Some say they can see nature sigh and suffer from the incursions of mans neglect.  I agree.  We have not been the best stewards of these great and generous gifts.  We constantly pollute and destroy; we indiscriminately kill and maim not only the animals but ourselves and the land and we do so callously and cruelly without regard to the future or present needs of those who possess and depend on what has been given.

Regardless of your understanding or belief, Nature or God the same rules apply.  Our earth lives and breaths, speaks and listens and reacts to what is being done.   Who will answer the horrors committed, God or Nature? Who will unleash the volcanic devastation, or who will respond with raising seas?  Which one will shake the foundation of all there is by moving those great tectonic plates or subdue all living under a cloud of hate and destruction with the tiniest of substances atomizing the atmosphere so that only nature is alive, God or Nature? They’re one in the same, Except with God there is forgiveness for what we've done and hope for the future.  Nature like us obeys and does as it is commanded.  Maybe that is the rhythm we should be searching for, the ebb and flow of understanding and obedience to those laws so plainly visible that even nature obeys, and knowledge of who we are as apposed to what we think we are.     

 God and Nature may look the same but in the end it is the Natural man that we must overcome in order for us to become more godlike.  So when I see a flower amidst the concrete and asphalt, struggling for life but all the while showing its beauty I know there is a god.  When I see the wars ravaging the planet over inconsequential arguments and the life within continues to flourish, shop keepers continue to sell and produce, men and women still fall in love and children are born, I know there is a god watching over us all. His pattern for us is helping us to learn to overcome, helping us learn to love and improve, knowing that as children we make mistakes, sometimes grave and serious mistakes but also providing us the love to know that we are important, we are loved and there is more to life than Nature.  Be god like and watch others grow.