Over the past sixteen months of our relationship Jessie has been sharing her hobby of birdwatching with me. As strange as it sounds to say, looking for birds has led me to think about God in new and different ways.
1. The depth and density of creation. Every day, I walk through the (ambitiously named) Hess Creek Canyon here on campus. Quite often, I'm distracted by my thoughts or on my way somewhere and I don't pay much heed to my surroundings. Tonight though, I stopped on my way back from dinner. As I looked down into the water, I suddenly heard sounds from the trees around me as if a stereo had been switched on. I looked up toward the branches. For a moment I saw nothing but tree--no movement at all. I waited. Like when you walk from a dark room into the bright light, it took my eyes a moment to adjust. When they did, I saw differently. The branches I saw as empty held tiny birds: chickadees and bushtits. I watched them for a while as they fluttered and chirped and squabbled above me. From somewhere nearby, a flicker yelped. I looked in vain for it in the trees. Even when I was paying close attention, there was more around me than I could see. The small area I was content to trudge through daily without a second though teemed with life. Creation is much, much deeper than we can imagine. The Grand Canyon and redwood forests are the start, not the end of creation--the picturesque cover on a dense and marvelous book penned by the Creator.
2. The detail of creation. Not only is creation unspeakably vast and populated, but it is infinitely detailed as well. Think of an animal you know well. It could be a robin or an elephant, even your pet. Hold an image of it in your mind or draw it if you like. With that image in mind, find a picture of that creature. Your depiction likely hit the highlights, but what details did you miss? Now consider that this little experiment only concerned the animal's physical appearance. What details of behavior and biology are impossible for a simple picture to convey? What has God endowed this creature with that you have stripped away through simplification?
One of birdwatching's greatest challenges is the LBB, the little brown bird. Without quick reflexes, a sharp eye, and a strong memory, a brown bird-shaped blur can be entirely undecipherable. Sparrows are a particularly vexing group. One might be tempted to say, "These are all the same! Why do we need so darn many?"
Why do we need so many? We don't. But they are far from the same. Our perception of sameness or difference holds no bearing on reality. Our world teems with variety because the Almighty God is infinitely creative to match his infinite power. He fashioned every species with care and placed them within his creation for a purpose. That purpose could be to anchor an ecosystem or something so small as to be humorous or beautiful. God delighted in creation in the beginning and he delights in it still.
3. God's care for his creation. Humans are unavoidably anthropocentric. We see ourselves as standing above creation, fundamentally different and separated from all else that exists. From the human perspective, this is quite reasonable. Our great fallacy is to assume God sees things the same way. To suggest that God lavishes his care upon the human race at the expense of all else misrepresents God's character and limits the Sovereign Lord.
In Job 38 and 39, the Lord speaks to Job from the storm, reprimanding him for questioning the divine. Through his speech, God walks Job through creation, detailing his intimate and continuing involvement in what he has made.
"Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!" (Job 38:4-5a)
Like a master builder, the Lord drafted then constructed the earth.
"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?" (Job 38:16)
As effortlessly as we walk upon a path, so does the Lord stride in the parts of the ocean so deep that no human eye has ever seen them.
"Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no one lives,
an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?" (Job 38:25-27)
Surely, humanity is not God's only concern if he puts forth effort to bless and preserve the places nobody lives. For whose edification does he do this? It can only be for his own.
"Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?" (Job 38:41)
Just as the Lord employed ravens to feed Elijah, so too does he feed the ravens themselves.
In Matthew 10, Jesus says to the Twelve:
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:29-31)
Clearly, the Lord means this as a comfort to his disciples. However, in thinking about how God cares for us, we can lose the bigger picture. Yes, God cares for us. He knows the hairs on our head and we are worth more than sparrows. But wait! God cares for the sparrows too. Not one of them falls without his knowledge. He knows them as intimately as he knows you or me. He knows every feather and should birds have names for themselves, he certainly knows those too. There must be great joy for God in those parts of creation which remain unmarred by sin.
I am not threatened by the idea that God would love his non-human creations. His love is sufficient to encompass all things. I would be fearful if God saw fit to place humans into a world he did not love, care for, or delight in. Creation is more marvelous than we can ever see or understand, but the least we can do is stop and look.
