The Glory of God in Monroe (and beyond…)
Last week on vacation in Oscoda with Linda provided an opportunity for me to take photos of various God-things, like these flowers. My love of God’s creation began as a child, and has not been lost over the years. It has gotten fueled in many ways, to include many hours of talk with friends of mine who are university professors and researchers.
When I worked at Michigan State University as a pastor to college students and professors my church had a lot of professional scientists in it. We had biologists and microbiologists and physicists and horticulturalists and soil chemists and soil physicists and entomologists and biochemists and more. I loved the dialogue with these men and women. A common subject was our shared belief in God and in Jesus and in the extravagance of God’s creation.
Once I was on a trip with some MSU students and professors, and we stopped at Warren Dunes State Park for a break to watch the sunset. A professor friend of mine, Tal, an epidemiologist who was doing research on the ebola virus, was stunned at the beauty of it all. I remember him saying, “How could anyone believe there’s no God behind all of this!”
Tal’s heart-insight is the overwhelmingly common experience of humanity through the ages. This gets reflected in a biblical passage like Psalm 19:1-3:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.”
Years ago I heard Richard Foster say that if you need some personal renewal in your life, step outside when it’s dark and look at the stars. When I do this I feel the vastness of the being of God overwhelming whatever small burdens and thoughts I have. One doesn’t have to be in Oscoda or at Warren Dunes to do this. You don’t have to “go north” or even to the other side of the world to experience the language of God as it comes through both the macro- and the micro-cosmos. For that, Monroe will do just fine.