God's Mountain, God's Creation

“那是神的磐石”, my friend said to me in Ban Orn, nodding his head towards the mountain in front of us as we stood outside the mission house.  “磐石 means rock, 神的磐石 is God’s rock, God’s mountain”, he explained when I protested that the mountain was not a stone (石).  Indeed, the mountain rising from the picturesque padi fields down in the valley presents what I call “a million-dollar view”.  It’s awesome just to gaze at it. 
 
All around us in Ban Orn and Maetoh, we could see, hear and sense the marvel of God in the nature that He created.  During a half-hour solitude (part of our silent retreat at the end of the missions trip in Maetoh), I had a heightened sense of the sight, sound and feel of the wonder of God’s creation :

-        An intricate spider web stretched out at the balcony and swaying in the gentle breeze; little birds flitting among the bamboo grove; dew drops falling intermittently from the leaves up in the trees; the sun’s rays breaking and streaking through the clouds in the mid-morning.
 

-        Twittering of the birds; chirping of insects; melodious clanging of cow-bells in the nearby field next to the river.
 

-        Warmth of the sun on my body as I stood at the balcony of the dormitory in the morning chill, the warm comfortable feeling moving down my body as the sun rose higher and I was gradually cast in shadow by the building. 

In the Canadian Rockies and California, too, I had a similar sense of the wonder and majesty of God’s creation last June.  Who could create the glorious snow-peaked mountains, falling snowflakes, pristine lakes, rushing rivers, thundering waterfalls, crashing coastal waves, multi-hued wild flowers, towering redwoods, cuddly (seemingly) black bears, ……. ?  Only God – the one and only living God who is the Creator of the whole world and everything in it. 

“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” (Psalm 24:1-2)

The book of Genesis in the Bible records the beginning of the universe – how God created all things in six days.  He created:

-        on the 1^st day, light (so there was light and darkness);

-        on the 2^nd day, sky and water;

-        on the 3^rd day, land seas, vegetation;

-        on the 4^th day, sun, moon and stars (to govern the day and the night and to mark seasons, days and years);

-        on the 5^th day, fish and birds ( to fill the waters and sky);

-        on the 6^th day, animals (to fill the earth), man and woman (to care for the earth and to commune with God).

And on the 7^th day, God rested from His work of creation.

How do we know that God did all this work of creation?  Lee Strobel gives very compelling evidence for God as master designer and creator in his book, The Case for Creation.  More on this another time …..

This Is My Father's World (Hymn)

This is my Father's world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father's world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker's praise.
This is my Father's world:
he shines in all that's fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!