Nature’s Miracles

    Miracles. Some folks can fit their description into a tiny box. Coincidence, fate, chance, luck, etc. A very small box.

My box has no sides or top. It’s as big as wide-open spaces. If I want to see, feel, and emotionally connect to miracles, I have but to take my daily hike in the forests. I love my church, cathedrals, stained glass, small chapels and praise music. But my DNA must connect on the deepest level in the woods.

It’s no surprise to me that tree rings and fingerprints bear a similarity. I know I’m connected. I certainly have far more pictures on my phone of moss, trees, roots and nature than my home.

While church really means the people who love Christ and come together, and not the building, when I walk, I’m at church. But the “People” are not human. It’s nature. I am drawn to the interconnectedness of massive tree roots, an underground system that makes the trees stronger. Scientist claim the roots communicate, connecting one tree to another. Just like members of a brick and motor congregation work to support each other and glorify God, nature does too. What a miracle.

And in the forest, away from all distractions, I am awestruck that the ground I am walking on is Holy Ground. God’s cycle of seasons has enriched for thousands of years, blessing the forest and everything in it with prosperity. Layer after yearly layer for millenniums is under my feet, all around me. Maybe ancient civilizations walked there. Or…maybe not.

How great is our God in a forest! The trees bow over me, forming the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral. Even in bleakest winter, seeds are waiting in the darkness to push up through snow and last year’s leaf litter. I’m there to celebrate the mystery when they poke their tiny green heads toward warming sunlight and seek God’s definition, glorifying Him in His diversity.

Churches are great for prayer, chapels compel it, stained glass and praise music evoke it. But with each step in His creation, I am experiencing joyous meditation on His natural miracles. Not one bit of it can we replicate or create. No two days the same, God constantly evolving and showing out around me.

In the forest I am no longer the me that thinks grocery and “to do” list. No longer the person hearing anything other than nature sounds, bird calls, water rushing, and tree branches rattling to create woodland wind chimes. Being able to disconnect from our daily world is a miracle.

Like so many others, (John Muir comes to mind) I lose myself to find myself in the woods. But it’s not just me I find, it’s me in my Creator and my Creator in me. I truly “get it” when I’m there, not caught up in the day to day, but caught up in His majesty.

     When I stoop to touch the thick moss growing in the deep lap of tree roots, when I catch the sun shining through colorful blossoms, shade dappling my path, light shining on stones that sparkle like jewels, or stop to marvel at how frost looks like diamond dust. Wildflowers bloom only where the Creator planted them. My heart is spring-loaded with joy.

I’ll suit up for it. I’ll brave the weather; I’ll wear waterproof jackets, lots of warm layers, my funky leather Aussie hat if it’s nice, or my warmest knitted head cocoon if it’s not. I’ll harness up an eight-pound Yorkie or two, because they show me the miracles I wouldn’t spot. Their noses follow scents I can’t, their ears perk up to rustling that I haven’t detected, they stop when something new strikes their fancy, just like I do. There’s the hole where the little mole lives, the tree where chipmunks run for safe haven. And oh, their joy when their little tongues lap up clear water bubbling over rocks. A different level of miracles.

Above me, around me, below me, but most of all, in me. God, the greatest miracle of all. He calls me to see Him, feel Him, and experience Him in a cathedral only He can create.

Please share how and where you most expereince God’s miracles.