Wonders of the Natural World

“Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air; and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”

When my family first moved into this area, we were on a tight budget and decided to rent an old house that pre-dated the surrounding suburbia and was drafty in winter, very leaky when it rained and, lacking air conditioning, sometimes unbearably hot in the summertime. It was, however, located on the edge of woods overlooking a pond. The August we moved in, it was difficult to get to sleep for the first few nights, until we got used to all the “noise” in that very peaceful location — insects and frogs and other creatures chattering away deep into the night.

Our children roamed the area and learned about the amazing variety of wildlife in the pond and its immediate vicinity — turtles sunning on rocks in the pond, beavers building a lodge, a mother doe and her two fawns who could be seen munching the lawn just outside our back door if we woke early enough, the occasional fox or muskrat stealing across the property. The kids learned as well the value of all life — to release the fish they caught, to return to his environs a turtle straying across the road, to free field mice or voles from the grasp of our cat, whose instincts led him frequently to catch them but who generally was not interested in the kill. Although our rental experience was trying in some ways, when we look back on it, we have no regrets, the chance to experience a little, near-perfect corner of God’s universe being one of the main reasons.

The first chapter of Genesis tells us God gave man dominion over the animal world, with all the attendant responsibilities that implies. The passage above from the second chapter makes clear that, from the very beginning, God has expected mankind to acquire knowledge of the world around us. In the earliest days of civilization it must have been a formidable challenge to distinguish between the multiplicity of birds and beasts. Indeed it is awe-inspiring to reflect that even today, however much damage we humans have done, intentionally or inadvertently, to our fellow creatures, we are still discovering and categorizing new species in remote territories or ocean depths. The stars in a clear night sky, the changing colors of our verdant surroundings, all the wonders of the natural world provide us, if we but take notice, with daily reminders of the unknowable majesty and omniscience of the Creator.

— John Schlosser