Back to Eden: Reconnecting With God Through NatureSample

The Immensities

"We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Sublime grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe. Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight." – Abraham Joshua Heschel.

So many of the things that we hold tight start to disintegrate when looking at the stars. I feel a similar thing when walking in the mountains, or watching a sunrise, or spending time in a quiet wood. Awe is a wonderful remedy for worry.

Every year, I feel an almost child-like sense of glee when spring comes, anticipating the life that is about to burst forth. You'd think that after decades of seeing flowers grow and bloom each year it would lose its thrill. But for me it hasn't, and it never will.

Nature is like that, isn't it? Will sunrises ever stop being stunning? Will the mountains ever fail to inspire awe?

You're never going to reach the edge of wonder. Or, indeed, of love. When you make your life about the immeasurable, there will always be abundance.

When we bring our hearts before the immensities – the beauty and the wonder of God’s creation – something inside us opens up. The space within us expands and a lot of the things we thought were a big deal turn out not to be. We realise that we are part of a greater whole.

Wonder helps reabsorb us back into the wider natural world; it is the great de-centerer that we all so desperately need; through wonder we are knocked out of the illusion that the world revolves around us. And are put back into the indigenous orbit around that which has infinite depth – call it beauty, call it spirit, call it God.

But to do this, we have to do it. We have to go outside. We have to stop and stare. We have to put down our busyness and embrace quiet stillness. 

It is one thing to know about spring flowers. You can do a Google search for primroses, or camellias, or hyacinths, or bluebells. You could probably learn all sorts of facts. But it is another thing entirely to discover the flowers for yourself – to seek those fae carpets in the woods.

You may not find them. But then again, what if you do?

How could you bring your heart before the immensities today? You don't need to take yourself to the top of a mountain. The immensities can be as small as a flower. Find whatever it is that helps you get your daily dose of awe and wonder.

Pray with us:

God of wonder,

Show me new ways that I can get lost in you through your creation.

Open my eyes, my ears and my heart to the wonder around me.

Help to stop, to be still, and to stare at the beauty around me.

Amen.