Today I was laying on a huge rock, surrounded by the ocean, reading Perelandra, the second of the Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis. Ransom, the main character is visiting a new planet and he is describing the planet with such wonder and imagery. I put the book down and started thinking about Space. I was caught in awe of the planets and galaxies. I was so overwhelmed by how wonderful all that exists is. My mind could not think about it all without a creator. It feels to me, impossible. It just doesn’t make sense at all. Where did it all come from? There is no way the answer is science. There is too much creativity, there is too much heart to it all, there is so clearly purpose. All of it is too beautiful to point to nothing. I was looking at our galaxy in my mind and was taken into deeper astonishment. The earth was selected to have life on it. Life that can be sustained because of the way it rotates around the sun and carries resources that meet the needs for life. I looked out to the ocean and imagined the entire world under those waters. I then looked down the side of the rock and watched how the water rushed gracefully but with great force into all of the cracks of the little rocks below. I thought to myself, “that is truly beautiful.” I then thought to myself, “Wow. God made these rocks and this water to do that because He knew that I would find it beautiful.” What a comforting thought. What an intimate God. I then went through all of the things that I specifically find beautiful amidst nature. What an intimate God, that He would create all of these things so that souls could connect with them and adore them.
I glanced at my book. Not only did God create beautiful oceans, planets, animals, and stars. But minds that can take a tree and turn it into paper, bind it together, all to become an object that can be read and understood and connected to by the human mind, even deeper, the soul. And the words have been formed by a mind with the capacity to take concepts to new levels, all so others can be taken to new depths.
I then looked over at my sister reading on a rock nearby. A soul that I love and find shockingly beautiful. To think of the deep connection I have towards nature and then to look over at this very soul that has my heart, and the tons of others that I have intimate care for, I couldn’t help but cry. Cry out thanks to God and over the realization that God has placed everything exactly where it is for deep, deep purpose. So that He can be a reality. So that we can see how He is alive and living all around us desiring for our souls to be aligned. Crying out that we will see what all of this is pointing to.
I then look down at a crab who doesn’t worry about what he is going to eat. He doesn’t get anxious and stressed about when the sun is going to.. probably scorch him. He probably should get a little stressed, maybe go in the shade so his life can be a little longer.. but that isn’t the point. The crab is who he is. He uses his abilities for their purposes. He does exactly what he was made to do. I look at his complexities, the claws he has been given and the ability to move and jump. And then my eyes shift towards my own hands. They are incredible. The way skin encloses so perfectly all of our organs and bones, how it can be broken and cut but it will not tear too easily. I have the ability to run, jump, climb, and handstand without a scratch. How incredible. Oh, what would my life be like if I was like this crab doing exactly as I was made to do! How often have these hands in front of me been the tools to waste time. My hands are limbs connected to a heart that has worried days away. That is where this crab and I are different. I have a soul, a soul that actually very much so longs to be free like this crab but has many difficulties to battle before that freedom can be all I know.
These difficulties are sin. The very nature we are born into with but thankfully not the nature we have been created to have.
God, in His grace, in His bleeding, jealous love for us, lets us sit on rocks pondering the universe, realizing His thread of glory through it all. And as we realize it, we step away from our old nature and into the new, new life.
Find a place and bask in God’s great glory. It is displayed everywhere you look. Whether it is the tree you climb, the feet you walk on, the threads in your sweater, your mother, your sister, your dog. Everything has a purpose, everything points to the One. The One who longs to romance you, who created the seas with you in mind. The One who deeply knows you and therefore deeply loves you.
And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”Isaiah 6:3
Annie Hindin teaches Kindergarten at our school in Mexico, and this is her second year serving with GEM. She has the God-given gift of extending love and understanding to every person she encounters, which makes her quite the teacher! If you’d like to read more of Annie’s pieces, you can do so on her personal blog.