“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8:22-23
Jesus often prayed in the mountains. Anytime you’re up in the peaks, looking across a quiet valley, or your eyes go bouncing along the tree-carpeted hills ahead, you can see why. Nature declares the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). Oh, my friends…she doesn’t whisper, nor hint, nor suggest. She’s His first and most powerful witness of His divine nature and eternal power (Romans 1:20). Christians should be lovers of nature for this reason. We should pray without ceasing, yes…and an easy way to pray is to look up at the heavens and simply be in awe of Him.
In our time, it’s common for non-Christians to profess a greater love of nature than His church. We should lovingly confront the non-believer. We should ask them why they’re so moved by something (creation) that’s an accident of chance. We should ask them humbly to consider why nature is literally speaking to them. They know God through nature (Romans 1:20-21)…He’s clearly perceived and they’re without excuse for their unbelief. But, alas, the love that He’s pouring into their hearts through His streams, His clouds, His peaks, and His blue sky, are exactly that witness we should bring to their attention. The harvest is before us.
Granted, the rise of pantheism (the belief that all is one and its handmaiden, which is the worship of nature) shouldn’t unsettle us. We often don’t know how to speak to the yoga devotee who expresses their love for “all things” and their “spirituality”. No, don’t be dismayed or intimidated. This is all a process of sinners suppressing the truth about God. So, go on. Ask them about why nature is personal to them. You don’t need powerful arguments of your own to be a great evangelist; you need only the powerful truth of God.
Lastly, there’s a judgment/discipline in this for us. Why is it that the atheists are more known for their love of God’s creation than His people are? The fear of a global warming catastrophe is a misplaced eschatology. It’s part of the sin of humanism – of thinking that sin isn’t the problem and, therefore, that Christ isn’t the answer. We can meet with the confused and deluded souls who worry about nature and tell them that nature has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21). We can tell them that Christ will one day come and we will all be released from our bondage to death and sin and decay. Gone will be the worries and the fears, the ubiquitous signs of aging. Gone will be the days of goodbyes and sorrows. Gone will be our fight with nature to live. It was the Fall and the curse of sin upon the ground (that is, the whole earth) that has made nature sometimes our enemy. This fact of nature – that we adore it and yet it will kill us without our technology – is a tremendous and humbling truth meant to lead us to the cross.
Until that time we know that we groan inwardly. We groan against the limits of the flesh and nature. We groan that we live in this world and it makes such burdensome demands upon us. We groan that as we seek to live on this planet, we sometimes pollute it. We groan under the weight of the constant give and take of it all. It’s all so much weariness...”All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it…(Ecclesiastes 1:8). Nature breaks our hearts even as it brings us to awe. Oh, how fine a way to worship God. This is all part of what it means to “groan inwardly”. It means that the weariness is meant to lead us to God in that groaning. “For who hopes for what he can see? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:24-25).”
We all worship, either the true and living God or a false one. Nature witnesses to us about the true God and the gospel of Jesus Christ reveals Him. Our hearts break over all the majesty and beauty of nature because we are meant only and ultimately for Him. So, when you see those mountains rolling on and on, and your heart swells, you know that you’re His through faith.
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