The Two Books

When retirement dumped me on the farm where I was literally overwhelmed by the presence of the creation all around me, things began to slowly change within me.  For a long time I did not speak of it for it seemed like I was going to a place in my faith that was far away from where I had roamed all my adult years.  I started seeing what was around me as a vast cathedral full of so many signs of the Holy One.  I began to understand that the church was not the only holy space, but instead, all space on the earth was holy. 

 

In recent years I have discovered the theology of Celtic spirituality which has given a name to the place I have come.  In one of the many books I have read on the subject, I found words that gave understanding to this new awareness.  "Christian tradition tells us that we have received two books of divine revelation:  the book of scripture and the book of nature.  Creation itself is a sacred text through which the presence of God is revealed to us."  ("Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire" by Christine Valters  Paintner)  While I have not gone off on such a deep end that I am seeing trees and rocks as God, I am beginning to understand that His voice and presence can be heard out there in the wild of creation.

 

It is always more than a little frightening to venture off in some new theological woods.  I could get lost.  Others might decide I have lost both reason and sanity.  Someone might even come up with a new name to fit their perception of my wandering away from orthodoxy.  I find myself walking slowly, but steadily forward.  More and more it seems that God is truly in everything around me and that there is nothing around me through which He cannot speak or make His presence known.   What is re-assuring is the growing awareness that many faithful souls have walked this way before me.