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Are you enjoying God's grandeur? For me, the last days in August are a special time. The trees are full and magnificent, swaying with their heavy heads of leaves; the relatives are getting ready to go home to various cities, and children are trying to get their parents to buy school supplies. As for me, I finally cleaned the garage, eyeing the snow shovel with anticipation.
I was visiting my daughter, who is a gardener, and I am the recipient of the bounty she shares. Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans, all so tasty. The thing that caught my eye, and she so generously shared with me, was Thimbleberry jam. Two small mason jars full. The jam is always a highlight, and I keep one jar for Christmas cookies that I make for a festive party we have on Christmas Day. I was thinking to myself, as we come into this season of garden abundance, how we take so much for granted.
We live in a place where berries are found, if you know where to look. If you are a local, you probably have your own special place; maybe your grandmother or mother showed you. But the berries grow, and we pick them. We just have to go and get them. Thimbleberries are my favorite. They can grow beside the road and release themselves into your gentle touch, staining your fingers red. They are tart and sweet all at once. They grow on prickly stalks, with beautiful, full green leaves that are memorably shaped.
I am speaking of this because in our current world, so many other things have become so prized that many people don't realize the beauty and the gift of creation. We hurry past the berries to get to the devices, or some screen, or an event that takes up not only our time and money but also our focus. These take us away from the natural world. The small, humble berry seems so insignificant to our normal lives. Yet they are small gifts that please us so when we see them, pick them, or eat them. How simple can this be? No cost for this pleasure, just the unity of humanity and nature in tune. What is this worth in our lives? A small act that brings us to a realization that God loves us and gives us this humble experience to enhance our lives and living, no matter how small the moment.
Why have we left so much of creation’s beauty for plastic screens and electronic bliss? Our entire days now are spent chasing the loud, epic entertainment and the unusual, usually to fill our lives with meaning. Creation, especially where we live, has so much more to offer, and may I add it has no cost. You just have to take time to see, focus, and rest in the moment. You have to slow down to experience the beauty of God's creation. The joy of being allows gratitude to flow in us, to be at peace if only for a little while; we can breathe and feel the unity of our being, one with nature and with our Creator.
I was driving last evening, just outside of Eagle Harbor, and the sun was setting. The sun was a ball, a circular ball of fire. It was so intense that I pulled over to watch its descent into the lake. For a moment it had no sound, but it was like a developing crescendo of light and emotion. Gratitude and humility filled me. The closest way I could explain it would be: it was like watching prayer. Time positioned in a pool of stillness. The Glory of God's creation was sweet before my human eyes, and I was allowed to witness it. I was aglow with Joy, grace, and gratitude. I drove home in silence; what a superb gift I had been given. It was not just for me; anyone of the many cars that stopped to witness the event had experienced something similar.
Please, in your next few days, if you see a humble jar of homemade jam, if you spread it on your toast, or if you are picking berries in your favorite patch, feel creation and your own spirit rejoice with gratitude and joy. Berries, small packets of flavor, also sing God's praises and joys. With gratitude they grow, are given to us free of charge to bring pleasure and assurance that God loves us.
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 reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.