Friday Friends: As True as a Stone

I love the woods and the creek that runs near my house. When the quarantine began and we were confined to our homes, I began to spend more and more time there. It was a place to be alone with my thoughts, a place where I could hear my own heart, and a place to hear God’s heart too. Three and a half months later, I still find myself there quite often, giving me the medicine I need.

On Sunday morning I walked there with a friend. My church is now open in a certain capacity, but I’m playing it safe with COVID and I don’t expect to attend church in person anytime soon. My friend and I talked about how the woods are a living temple to the living God. Being surrounded by the singing birds and soaring trees doesn’t feel entirely different than worshiping in a church surrounded by humans.

Luke 19:37–40 says: When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

I tend to think that the stones are always crying out. The bush is always burning. The trees are always praising. The mountains are always speaking of God’s majestic strength. The creek is always singing about the way obstacles make the music. The ocean waves resound with the persistence of a God who is always with us. The scent of flowers hints at a beauty that cannot be contained. Together with the creatures from the highest peaks to the ocean depths, all of creation speaks its own facet of the truth.

This is what I know when I seek the solitude of the outside world. Creation embodies itself, and because it is always true to itself, it is constantly singing its own song of praise to its maker. Here is the challenge I hear the woods whisper to me: How will you live fully present in the miracle of your own life? What song will you sing with the time that is given to you? The trees and the creek never waste a minute being what they are not. How about you?