Do you take time to appreciate the beauty of this amazing Earth that God created? In the last week I have started hiking again. (The above Mt. Rainier pic is from my last hike.) I used to hike often, but life has gotten in the way and I have forgotten how much I love just being alone in the woods. I have spent most of my life living in rural areas where it was easy to disappear into nature. Somehow though life got busy and it’s often cold and dreary here in the Pacific Northwest and I quit spending time in the wild, but I have missed the peace it brings to my soul. I forget how awesome God’s creation truly is.

I have a Bachelors in Fisheries & Wildlife Studies that I didn’t use for much professionally. After college, I spent a few years working for graduate students tracking songbird flocks and spent every day in the woods. Even though I have studied God’s creation and know how to identify many different tree species, fish, birds, etc. it is still amazing to me that each one is created UNIQUELY in this magnificent world God created. There is so much diversity that we still haven’t even discovered it all!!!  In 2019 alone we discovered 71 new species. 

“Despite decades of tirelessly scouring some of the most familiar and remote places on Earth, biodiversity scientists estimate that more than 90% of nature’s species remain unknown.” – Academy Chief of Science Shannon Bennett.

It would appear that we humans have spent A LOT of years documenting new species and we have barely scratched the surface of all that God has created. The creativity and variation of every species on Earth is truly a marvel.

The beauty of our surrounding world is one of the reasons that the Encourage Your Soul website was designed to look how it does. There is always room for every different perspective and heart, but God’s creation is what speaks so loudly to me about how magnificent our Almighty Creator is. Many Christian blogs have pictures of beige teacups and pale pink tulips and I understand the calming presence this inspires, but it just doesn’t resonate with me to show the TRUE glory of God. Every blade of grass, every creature, every sunrise, sunset and everything in between is to be marveled at. I just stand in awe so often. I also need to do it so much more, I have my head down looking at my to-do list and I don’t look up to appreciate all the beauty that God has surrounded us with. We are so distracted and selfish that we don’t even take a moment to appreciate the wonder of the world around us sometimes. As the old saying goes, we really should take time to stop and smell the roses. We need to find some calm in our day.

If any one of us had created this beautiful world for our children and our child just walked in and said “yeah great, thanks”. We would be heartbroken that our loving creation was so unappreciated and taken for granted. Do we treat God like this? We are all guilty from time to time of getting caught up in ourselves, but it is an important reminder to behold the amazing creation all around us. 

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Often we spend more time behaving like the stray cat that adopted my family almost 2 years ago. He is orange so I have affectionately named him Cheddar. He showed up mysteriously as a very young cat, I don’t know where he came from because we live in the middle of nowhere. It was obvious from the beginning that no matter how terrified he was of us, he was sticking around. Then the snows began and it was really obvious he wasn’t going anywhere. Our other very old cat, Tigger, who beat up any other cats that came around must have understood that he was a baby and so she welcomed him into her bed and heat lamp and showed him the ropes…..much to my dismay. Tigger passed away shortly after and so of course I continued to feed Cheddar and make sure he was taken care of. However, even though I gave him food and water twice a day and every other accomodation outside he would not let me get anywhere near him for 9 MONTHS! It has been almost two years now and he will only let me get near him if I feed him. He is the most ridiculous cat I have ever met and I find him doing the oddest things in the weirdest places….like sunbathing on the roof of our 2 story home and once hanging by one leg from the lights strung in our backyard – I am still not sure how he got there. Through all his ridiculous antics and all my barely appreciated provisions for him, I just can’t help thinking we are so much like Cheddar. We are able to understand and see all that God has provided us. We are grateful for the sustenance, just as Cheddar is, but sometimes we still don’t trust that God has our best intentions in mind. We are still bent to do things our own way – no matter how ridiculous they are – but we still desire to remain in God’s presence. 

Let us slow down and take a moment to appreciate all that our Lord has done. If God is capable to create our awe inspiring Earth that we are STILL exploring the details of, then it should give us all pause that we can trust him with everything else in our life. God has provided an awe inspiring planet with every single thing we need to sustain us. We can rest assured that our Lord will continue to provide, lead and guide in every other area of our life also. We need to pray, listen and obey. Take a breath, look around at all of nature and trust (like Cheddar really should!) that you will be taken care of and there is no need for fear, anxiety or human scheming.

Psalm 104:24-25 O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. ²⁵ Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.