The First Thing

As I remember growing up, my first response to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was farmer.  Both my parents grew up on farms so maybe it was embedded in my DNA in some mysterious way.  Of course, my journey to the farm was a long round about one that took me what turned out to almost be a lifetime to complete.  It was retirement that brought me out of the urban lifestyle and into the rural setting.  As I have ventured into this era of my life, I have learned a lot of new stuff.

 

One of the things learned is that the creation really is an integral part of life.  In some ways the creation was often taken for granted as I lived hurrying from one scheduled thing to the next.  I never understood that some folks thought of rain as something other than an inconvenience.  And while I learned to fret over dry weather which might hurt the lawn, a period of dry weather can be just the right time to harvest a crop.  The Harvest Moon which shines so brightly outside over the land is a reminder of the provision of the creation.  This particular full moon earned its name as its brightness enabled the farmer to continue harvesting crops even after the sun had disappeared. 

 

The creation is not to be worshipped, but it is a powerful and ever present reminder of the One Who is to be worshipped.  The book of Genesis clearly proclaims that everything that exists in the universe is in its place because of the creative power of God.  He not only created each individual aspect of the creation, but He set everything in place in exactly the right relationship with every other part of the created order.  It is not a created order flung into place, but one carefully and divinely designed.  To stand in awe at the beauty and order of creation is to stand in awe of a Creator God who created everything that is out of nothing.  Amazing!  Only God could have conceived of doing such a thing!