Every human heart that has been t o any
degree sensitive to the influence of the natural world has
been to that degree aware of spiritual and aesthetic values
that were enjoyable to the senses. It may be no more than
the satisfying of vulgar curiosity in gazing at the antics
of the caged monkey, or the bovine stare of the gum-chewer
for whom the Grand Canyon breaks the rhythmic wag only long
enough for the profound utterance, "Ain't nature grand!"
From such lows the awareness of the spiritual meaning in
nature climbs slowly upward.
A little higher than the satisfying of
mere curiosity toward nature is the sense of fear of the
mysteries in nature. We go into hysterics at the sight of an
insect or a reptile; then we glamorize our fears as evidence
that we are superior beings, forgetting that our blind,
unreasoning fears but emphasize the shame of how far sin has
dragged us down from the "dominion" over nature with which
God endowed our first grandparents.
We climb a little higher in the scale,
and we come to different degrees of artistic love of the
beauty of nature. Then some of us manifest our delight in a
beautiful view by a trail of tin cans, banana skins, and
soiled paper plates. We drown the voice of the great deep by
the voice of the swing band from the boardwalk-anything,
anything, for "pleasure," to stultify our souls lest we come
face to face with God walking in His garden.
We go still higher in the scale of
comprehension of nature, and we find among many of the
so-called dumb animals expressions of the higher motives we
ourselves feel, and we discover a kinship between ourselves
and our "little brothers." Hence we go into all varieties of
nature worship. We claim that nature and ourselves are part
of God (pantheism); or we proclaim ourselves only animals
and suppose that we find in the elements of which all
animate and inanimate substances are composed the only deity
(evolution).
We go still higher (not necessarily in
the realm of "civilization," for some of the most primitive
races and persons have achieved this height) and we find
those who discover in nature the workmanship of a Mind, a
Supreme Being, the Creator.
"Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach
thee: ... or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee:
... Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord
hath wrought this?" Job 12:7-9. All that has been said in
this book has had but one purpose: to call attention to the
hand of an intelligent, personal Creator in nature and to
solicit the worshipful response of our hearts. To this end
we have traced in nature God's majesty, wisdom, and
immutability. We have found His provident care for His
creatures, His love of beauty, order, design, symmetry,
propriety, and truth. "The invisible things of Him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made, even His eternal power and
godhead." Romans 1:20.
Thus in nature we find a revelation of
God as the great Lawgiver. The infant's earliest contact
with the natural world is in the form of learning law-result
follows cause, good result after good cause, and the
opposite. And the highest comprehension of nature by the
greatest scientist is still in the realm of law, however
much we may vaunt ourselves that we have bent the natural
world to our will. The answer is still negative to the
question put to job by the Voice from the whirlwind: "Canst
thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee,
Here we are?" Job 38:35. We boast that the, lightnings do
obey our pushbuttons and power switches, forgetting that
that mystery called electricity complies with our wishes
only when we comply with that divine law it always obeys.
It is true that nature, marred by the
effects of man's sinning, is an imperfect revelation of God,
and it is only in Jesus Christ that we fully see the Father.
But nature is not entirely lacking in the revelation of
God's love. Principles of unselfishness, which is love, are
seen even in the arrangements of the leaves on stems to
allow all a maximum of exposure to light and air. Love and
unselfishness are illustrated in larger degrees in the
mother love of birds and animals, which will give, their own
lives to save their young. The principle of vicarious
sacrifice, of which Jesus said that there was no greater
manifestation of love, is shown in nature, though in a
degree immeasurably less than in the Father's gift of His
Son.
But the plan of salvation, which is so
fully revealed in the Bible, involves more than vicarious
sacrifice. It is more than its crowning event at the cross.
The plan-called in Zechariah 6:13 "the counsel of
peace"-began before man sinned (Revelation 13:8) and will
not be finished until all that was lost is fully restored
(Luke 19: 10; Revelation 21, 22). The plan of salvation
involves both provision for man's salvation before he needed
salvation and also his restoration to a sinless state. Is
that taught in nature as well as in the Bible?
When five weeks ago I slipped on an icy
street and broke my arm and was taken to the clinic, the
doctor did absolutely nothing for me but give my arm a
support, in order to allow the healing and restoring powers
that were already there to work toward restoration. When the
cast was removed, the arm had been restored. There is all
the meaning of the plan of salvation involved in that simple
healing process. Simple? It involves the highest mysteries
of God. Every time the blood clots over a wound we see
salvation provided before the need the potential salvation
of the Lamb whose blood was provided before man sinned.
(Revelation 13:8.) All the restorative processes of
nature-and there is no other healing-are illustrations of
the plan of salvation.
Nature and the Bible speak the same
language.
