ENVIRONMENTAL MEDITATION ON GOD’S CREATION:.... at Mt. Tamborine: Mt. Tamborine Convention Centre, Queensland, Australia
by Ken Aitken 01.04.02
____________________________
6.30 a.m. in the morning …… looking out from a table with seats on the camping ground ……. area with tents and caravans dotted around the edges of the open grassed space of the camping area ….. few people up … …… very quiet except for nature in the background ……. Camping area surrounded by 50 metre ++ gums ….. white trunks eucalypts (flooded gums) …… the distant grove of gums …… upright cream - white trunks in blotchy patterns of shared shadows from intercepting leaf clumps ….. Branches separate into thinner thicknesses from the trunk in a graceful ascending order …. separating into expanding tiers of smaller brown branches …… then separating further to smaller branches …… then bunches of finely divided green eucalypt leaves held outwardly in an expectant way to the warming sun.
_____________________________
Bird calls are the predominant background sound ….. numerous lorikeets feast in the flowering gum blossoms …… a magpie musically warbles in the background ….. the sound piercing the sound of the lorikeets in more defined tones ……. A occasional crow calls from distant treetops over that combined bird sound ……. A black cockatoo slowly wheels into view trailing a long black tail with a characteristic calling cry that rents the quietness of the early morning …… magpies keep calling from different directions.
__________________________________
The breeze sighs in a benign way through the leafy tree canopy ….. blue sky behind the dark lanceolate leaves ….. the night moon is a white sphere in the background with an outer precise circle receding into an indistinct lower edge …. man with his Earth–based space technology landed on this distant moon in 1969 …. landed a man there ….. took some photographs ….. ran around on the surface in a moon buggy ….. set up an American flag on a windless plain …. was awed by looking back at Earth as a distant blue planet …. finally those men came back to Earth …. He thought that was an amazing accomplishment …… our God in comparison, precisely hung the Earth and its moon in an airless space long before man came into existence ….. He didn’t need to go there in his own Heaven – based technology but created it all from a universal distance …….. He placed man and all the Creation on the Earth and saw it was very good with great artistic beauty …. No Big Bang with blind random chances of survival over millions of years ….. The Universe shows awesome evidence of a spiritual origin with a quiet order in everything….. of precise design and construction …… the subtle and intricate interplay of all the processes of interdependence between one part of Creation and the next.
David in the Psalms calls us to meditate on this Creation order with an invitation to respond as in:
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David
Psa 19:1-12
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language , where their voice is not heard
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber , and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
Bird calls are the predominant background sound ….. numerous lorikeets feast in the flowering gum blossoms …… a magpie musically warbles in the background ….. the sound piercing the sound of the lorikeets in more defined tones ……. A occasional crow calls from distant treetops over that combined bird sound ……. A black cockatoo slowly wheels into view trailing a long black tail with a characteristic calling cry that rents the quietness of the early morning …… magpies keep calling from different directions.
__________________________________
The breeze sighs in a benign way through the leafy tree canopy ….. blue sky behind the dark lanceolate leaves ….. the night moon is a white sphere in the background with an outer precise circle receding into an indistinct lower edge …. man with his Earth–based space technology landed on this distant moon in 1969 …. landed a man there ….. took some photographs ….. ran around on the surface in a moon buggy ….. set up an American flag on a windless plain …. was awed by looking back at Earth as a distant blue planet …. finally those men came back to Earth …. He thought that was an amazing accomplishment …… our God in comparison, precisely hung the Earth and its moon in an airless space long before man came into existence ….. He didn’t need to go there in his own Heaven – based technology but created it all from a universal distance …….. He placed man and all the Creation on the Earth and saw it was very good with great artistic beauty …. No Big Bang with blind random chances of survival over millions of years ….. The Universe shows awesome evidence of a spiritual origin with a quiet order in everything….. of precise design and construction …… the subtle and intricate interplay of all the processes of interdependence between one part of Creation and the next.
David in the Psalms calls us to meditate on this Creation order with an invitation to respond as in:
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David
Psa 19:1-12
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language , where their voice is not heard
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber , and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
The law of the LORD is perfect , converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb
Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
Who can understand his errors ? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
_____________________________
