Sunday, January 28, 2024
Sunday Reflection: God and the natural world
Like most other practicing Christians (and I mean that in both senses), I know a lot of people who don't go to church anymore. Often, they say the same thing: that they get more of a sense of God in nature than they do in a house of worship, so why bother?
There is a part of that which I struggle with intellectually. Jesus said we should gather for worship, for one thing. And beyond that, I've never concluded that God formed each thing in nature; it seems just as likely that the creating evolved and changed under its own forces over time.
But... sometimes I feel it. I see a perfect red leaf on the ground and pick it up. I am stopped cold by the shape of a river or the sound of the ocean. I see the snow over hills. I can't help but feel it, that presence.
And, I suppose, that is as real as thinking it.
