I went canoeing on a river today and I wondered about God's influence in nature. Rashi, the 11th Century Hebrew scholar, says that in Genesis 1, there are strong implications in the Hebrew that nature was rebelling against God as it was created. This seems to indicate that as God kept imbuing nature with more and more consciousness, he expected more and more obedience or conformity until ultimately he created mankind with high expectations.
I'm not sure I agree with Rashi. I think that nature reflects God quite well. It's both terrible and beautiful, just like God. God inspires both fear and awe. God can create both an idyllic heaven and a torturous hell; it doesn't surprise me that nature can be cruel and lovely. Predators prey on the elderly and the young, not because predators are cruel, but because they want an easy meal with the smallest chance of getting hurt themselves. In the same way, the predator's dispassionate efficiency holds a certain measure of grace and beauty.
But nature also holds a great magnificence that can manifest itself on a quiet river with a bored little boy. Once the novelty wore off and the "I'm bored"s stopped, the creative imagination of a child was laid over the micro-dramas of natural life.
I saw a reflection of a facet of God in a fish that ate a water bug, a turtle that fled from the smell of man, a boy with his fingers in the water, a treeline that blocked the sun, the light rain and flood of complaints, water flowing miles and miles to a destination that cannot be perceived. And, for the first time in a long time, I saw a glimpse of a reflection of God as a father steered a canoe towards low-hanging branch while his son, hands outstretched, squealed in delight.
No comments:
Post a Comment