The Garden

Ah Lord God forgive us. You gave us all we could ever need in Your creation, and yet we wanted more. Not enough to be created in Your image, to know You and walk with You; we wanted to BE You. "You will be like God" Satan had said. A lie: we WERE like You but traded that instead to be like him-- children of rebellion rather than children of God.

You sent Your Son to re-open that door, but we hardened our hearts against You. We crucified Your Son-- and in so doing fulfilled Your plan. You raised Him from the dead and opened the door. Where once there was only death, now there is Life.

I sit in a park surrounded by trees-- huge, beautiful trees three times my age, splendid, magnificent trees-- a glimpse of the garden You made for us, and made us for. It's stately-- it speaks of You and inspires quiet awe. The longer I linger the more I see, the more I hear. Your presence is unmistakable. Oh why were we not satisfied!?

A Prayer of Humility*

O Lord, I do not know
how You flung the stars into space,
Or the time You took
to carve the canyon we call "Grand,"
But this I know: whether in a moment
or spanning millions or billions of years,
You designed and crafted these, and all of life, to be
to the praise of Your majesty.
Amen.


*occasioned by a rethinking of some of my previously held dogmas

Songs in the Night

I have become a connoisseur of sound. Nature sounds to be precise. I'm a visual person, enamored of images and deeply enjoying opportunties to practice nature photography. But in the process of completing the volunteer hours required for my Master Naturalist certification, I have been working with the county forest preserve district doing frog call surveys. These are done after sunset and I find myself spending hours alone after dark in the county forest preserves. There's not a lot to see (though when the moon is nearly full there is a beauty unique to its pale light) but there is plenty to listen to-- sometimes a rich tapestry of sound; sometimes vast stillness with only brief interruptions of sound; sometimes subtle sounds emanating from the darkness. There's the crescendoing chorus of spring peepers or cricket frogs building in intensity and volume only to taper off again for an interlude of silence before starting all over. There's the sharp slap of a beaver's tale on the water warning of my intrusion into their world of night. There's the nearby chattering of two raccoons apparently in some disagreement, the distant hooting of a great horned owl, the snorting and stamping of a herd of deer in the meadow as startling to me as I am to them. As the weather gets warmer the insects increasingly become a part of the symphony of night. They're only getting started now with the whirring of some nearby crickets, the fluttering of a moth when my flashlight is on, the buzzing of a mosquito.

At a time I'm normally home sleeping, there's an awful lot going on in the woods and on the water. Some of the sound is incidental -- the startled deer, the angry raccoons and the buzzing mosquito (indeed, it would be to the mosquito's advantage to approach me more silently!), but much of it is purposeful, in particular, the calling of the frogs. Using sound to attract a mate makes a lot of sense when the attracting is to be done at night (some species will call in the daylight hours as well as after dark, spring peepers and cricket frogs among them, but after sunset is definitely prime time). I marvel at the diversity of the frog and toad calls-- a much greater variety than the stereotyped cartoon-style "ribbit". And I am impressed by how well and how far most of the calls carry, over the water especially, but also across land. In my surveys I have frequently discovered temporary bodies of water I didn't know existed by following the calls of one or more frogs or toads. It's a system of finding a mate beautifully designed for life after dark at the water's edge and just one more small detail attesting to the brilliance and creativity of the Master Designer. "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!" (Psalm 150:6) Amen I say to that.

My experiences in the woods at night have given me a whole new appreciation for the richness of our audio environment. Please enjoy this sampling of "sound bites" from my wandering in the woods (or hop over to my Frog Blog and Podcast).

Sample Sound Bites:

• the rise and fall of a chorus of spring peepers
  


• a couple of western chorus frogs
  


• intro by crickets, feautred solo by eastern gray tree frog, percussion by cricket frogs, incidental sounds by geese on the lake, a bird in the woods and distant American toads
  

A Prayer of Thanks

I thank you Lord for squirrels
that running and chasing each other through the trees
remind me that You are also the creator of PLAY
and life need not always be grim and serious
to be pleasing to You.

I thank you Lord for trees that stand
majestic and tall as a quiet reminder
of Your majesty, beauty and power.

The Beauty of the Snow

Again I will maintain that God in His wisdom intended snow for more than just winter precipitation, important as that is. Through the prophet Isaiah God unveils it as a message of hope:

"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

Even earlier David in a prayer of repentance had recognized the aptness of the image in his plea for cleansing:

"Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7

Fresh-fallen snow is a message of hope. It speaks of a new beginning, but as the snow itself does not spring up from the earth but rather falls from the heavens, so our hope for forgiveness and a new beginning do not rest with us. Isaiah and David are both clear on this point: there is a need for repentance-- a turning away from our sins, but forgiveness comes from the grace of God. The cleansing spoke of in both passages cannot be the result of human effort-- it is the gift of God. As the snow comes down to blanket the earth in beauty, a picture of purity and a new beginning, so the grace of forgiveness comes to all who are willing to turn to God from their sins.

Dragonfly Wings

Creation sings in dragonfly wings--
In membranes elegant and clear,
It proclaims God's wisdom and power
To everyone willing to hear.

If you've ever spent any time watching dragonflies in flight, then you have some idea of what amazing creatures they are. I struggled long and hard to express my thoughts and feelings in the brief poem above and only managed to scratch the surface. Most adult insects have two pairs of wings, but dragonflies and damselflies are the only insects capable of moving their front wings and back wings independently of each other. This fact accounts for the amazing aerobatic feats and speed they are able to achieve (some species attain speeds of up to 35 miles/hour or more¹). There are four recognized flight styles based on varying patterns of synchronization between front and back wings, each with distinct advantages and uses. But dragonflies and damselflies can also adjust wing shape and attack angle for each wing and they do this for each one independently of the the others as needed, leading to incredibly versatile and unparalleled flight capabilities.²

Only recently have researchers been coming to a more complete understanding of the complex aerodynamic forces at work in dragonfly flight. "Whereas aircraft use only two methods for generating lift (and one of these only for very short periods) dragonflies use at least four distinct physical processes: classical lift, supercritical lift, vortices, and vortex shedding."³ Other research suggests that dragonflies have the ability to approach prey or other dragonflies undetected by flying in such a way as to appear motionless to the other insect's compound eyes!⁴ It's not surprising that research into dragonfly flight holds potential for applications as diverse as recreational sail design⁵ and military aircraft.⁶

Not only are dragonflies and damselflies the unparalleled aerobatic fighter pilots of the insect world, but they've been at it a long time. The earliest fossil dragonflies discovered so far are said to be some 325 million years old, and apart from size-- some of the early fossilized examples have wingspans approaching 30"-- the wings are very similar to dragonfly wings today.⁷ Dragonfly wings, and dragonflies themselves, are masterpieces that testify boldly to the brilliance of their Creator!

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonflies
² http://tolweb.org/notes/?note_id=2471
³ Ibid
⁴ http://info.anu.edu.au/MAC/Media/Media_Releases/_2003/_030605Dragonflies.asp
⁵ http://www.transitionrig.com/fly1.htm
⁶ http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200306/s872489.htm
⁷ http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/uniramia/odonatoida.html

The Miracle that is Reproduction

On Labor Day weekend exploring my brother's property with my 8-year-old son, we came across this delightful neonate northern water snake. According to my field guide, the new generation is born late July or August, so this snake is probably about a month old. As I was thinking more about this special encounter, I was marveling at how this little guy, little more than 1/10 the size of a full-grown adult, was such a perfect replica of his parents (apart from "personality" as the adults have a very bad reputation for being quite ill-tempered). Of course reproduction is such a common part of life taking place all around us that it's quite easy to not give it a second thought, but without it none of us, indeed no living thing, would be here.

When I stop to think about it, I can't see the process of reproduction as anything short of miraculous. In the case of this water snake, a male and female meet up in May and breed, then over the course of the next three or four months inside the female's body 20 to 50 perfect miniature replicas are formed. When the time comes, they emerge (live birth in the case of water snakes as opposed to eggs for many other snakes) fully functional reproductions of their parents, able to hunt their own food, grow, find shelter, avoid predators, survive the winter and, in time, to reproduce. The fact that ALL living things reproduce in one way or another may cause us to take this process for granted, but rather than detracting from the miraculous process that this is, it should cause us to marvel at the millions of variations, large and small, that all accomplish the same task -- the preservation of life.

Nor should the fact that the process can be observed and objectively described cause us to miss out on the wonder of it. Even if scientists were able to observe, analyze, understand and explain the whole process from beginning to end, the fact is we are totally incapable of replicating the process in any manner remotely so marvelous. What's the best human-created analogue? Software viruses that replicate themselves across computer systems? As cleverly designed as these may be, they are orders of magnitude more simplistic than the simplest forms of reproduction among living things.

So where does this universal ability to reproduce come from? If one assumes that life is the result of random processes in the primordial soup, then it is inconceiveable to me (excuse the pun) that even IF through some happy circumstances a collection of chemical compounds that could be regarded as "living" arose from the muck, that this organism would arrive with the built-in capacity for reproduction. And if it does not have the capacity for reproduction, where does it go from there? In contrast, the Biblical account of creation indicates from the very beginning that God created all living things with the ability to reproduce (Genesis 1:11-12, 22, 25, and 28). I see reproduction as yet another miraculous facet of creation that bears testimony to the awesome power and wisdom of our God.

Of Ants and Aphids

Whenever I stroll through the prairie I have a special interest in checking out the milkweed population. Originally this was due to my ongoing fascination with the monarch butterfly, but over time, my fascination with milkweeds has taken on a life of its own. They typically host a very interesting assortment of colorful characters -- insects of various types sporting bright colors to advertise their toxicity after feeding on milkweed. However, there are also milkweed plants devoid of most of the more usual creatures found on the plant and instead evidencing an active patrol of black ants. Invariably upon closer inspection of these plants, one will find a colony of bright yellow oleander aphids somewhere near the top (more tender) part of the plant, attended by one or more ant guards. It is possible to find colonies of these aphids without the ants, but with a resident ant patrol, their quality of living is greatly enhanced. The aphids have many mortal enemies-- lacewing larvae, ladybug nymphs and adults, and aphid wasps to name a few, and the aphids themselves are defenseless apart from their toxicity from feeding on milkweed which deters some predators, but not, for example, the ones mentioned above. So when they're tended by ants, life is good. The ants post a guard around the aphids and then patrol the plant for invaders, killing them or driving them off. In addition, at least one research study has found that ants will remove diseased aphids from the closely packed "herd" in order to prevent the spread of disease. In return for all this care, the ants enjoy the sweet "honeydew" which the aphids secrete as they process the sap they suck from the plants.

I find such mutually beneficial relationships, of which there are seemingly countless examples to be found in creation, fascinating. Although both the ants and the aphids can and do exist independently of each other as well, there are many cases where its difficult or impossible to imagine the one species surviving without the other (the yucca plant and yucca moth are a classic example). While I know there are explanations put forth for such symbiotic relationships in evolutionary texts, I see such harmonies as yet another testament to the creative and intricate design of a world created by an infinite and all-wise creator.

Extravagance

In this picture, taken at a local prairie, there are at least eight different types of flowers all in bloom at the same time (click it to see a larger version -- how many different kinds can you find?). I find this extravagant. And of course the flowers catch our attention, but there are probably dozens of other plant species, several kinds of small animals and thousands of species of insects, spiders and other invertebrates hidden in the few square yards captured in this picture. It seems that when God created, He wasn't content with "just enough" and He didn't stop with "plenty"-- creation is overflowing with the superabundance of His creativity and delight!

I remember a Far Side cartoon entitled something like "God creates the snake" which depicted God rolling out long strands of play-doh as any preschooler would and exclaiming "Oooo. These are easy!" While there's a lot in the cartoon we might take issue with if we took the cartoonist's view seriously, I'm convinced that God thorougly enjoyed the process of creation and delighted in the rich diversity and myraids of variations in the plants and creatures He created. In a 2005 article entitled "Somewhere Out There, Millions of Species Await Discovery," Tina Butler writes that the current number of identified species in all kingdoms comes to about 1.75 million but that 15-20,000 new species of animals alone are discovered every year and that the UN Global Diversity Assessment estimates that there may be as many as 13.6 million species out there! If these estimates are anywhere near accurate, not only do we "not know the half of it," we don't even know a fifth of it!

So why this extravagance? I find it difficult to imagine such extravagance being the product of a grim, harsh survival of the fittest kind of process. I believe it's yet another expression of God's glory in His creation-- a demonstration of His creativity, power and, for lack of a better word, completeness. He doesn't do things partway: "Well, here are three different types of flower for the prairie environment -- that ought to do it!"

And it's a gift. We don't live in a boring world. Imagine having to tell your children, "Sorry, honey, there really isn't anything new left to discover..." We are apparently only scratching the surface (and of course, that's not even counting how much we don't know about the species we do "know"!)

New Life

Today is Easter Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Countless sermons preached today no doubt drew the inevitable parallel between the promise of new life offered by the resurrection and the emergence of new life so abundantly manifest in this season of spring. The co-occurence of the resurrection of Christ with the beginning of spring is, I am confident, more than just a happy coincidence.*

A major reason for this assertion is the fact that the timing of the Jewish Passover celebration, which set the stage for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, is tied into the historic events that it commemorates -- the deliverance of the Jewish nation from Egypt under the leadership of Moses (Exodus 12:42). It is abundantly clear from the narrative in Exodus that the this event was entirely dependent upon the intervention of God-- from the preservation and preparation of Moses to lead His people to the ten plagues which led to the end of their bondage. The timing of the Passover events and its subsequent commemoration, therefore, was in the hands of God and He, in His infinite wisdom, saw fit to bring this to pass in the spring.

The Passover celebration was not just the historic context for the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (e.g. Matthew 26:2), but Christians from the time of Christ see in it deep symbolic significance foreshadowing its fulfillment in Christ (I Corinthinans 5:7) and view the timing of Christ's death and resurrection during the Passover celebration as further confirmation of the significance of the relationship between the two events. The sacrifice of a spotless lamb to protect those who partake of it and take refuge under its blood from the judgement of God is a clear picture of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the one John the Baptist called "the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).

But I will go one step further. There are those, perhaps, who would explain the celebration of Easter as the result of the hope engendered by spring. However, for me it is quite reasonable to believe rather that from the creation of the earth God intended spring to engender the hope of new life as a witness to the resurrection to come. Peter says that Jesus, the "sinless, spotless Lamb of God," was chosen "for this purpose long before the world began" and speaks in this context of His resurrection from the dead (I Peter 1:18-21, New Living Translation). This was in God's mind when He created the world, so just as God prepared the way for the events of Easter through the events of the Passover, I believe He designed the whole rhythm of summer-fall-winter-spring as a yearly testimony to the possibility and promise of new life in Christ.

*I do realize that for people in the southern hemisphere, resurrection Sunday falls in the fall, and further, that spring does not occur, to speak of, in the tropics. Still, I will argue that for those in the temperate regions, spring is a powerful display of new life intended to point us to the hope of resurrection.