The Cathedral of Creation

This month marks ten years away from the pulpit and here at the farm.  When I was a mere boy being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my first answer was "a farmer."  Of course, there were other choices after that first one and obviously one that stuck for a life time, but here I am now at where I said I wanted it to be back in the beginning.  While I hesitate to speak of myself as a farmer when there are so many "real farmers" around me, I do put my time and energy into a rural lifestyle. 

 

As I was getting used to a life that no longer was centered around a church building, I began to sense that the God who always seemed to be revealing Himself in some way through the church and its ministries was still around and still revealing Himself as surely as had always been the case.  It was the medium of revelation that changed.  Instead of experiencing Him present in the church, the creation around me became the primary means of experiencing revelation of the holy.  The signs and wonders of the Book of Acts seemed to be every bit as real and powerful in the unfolding creation.

One thing which has surely changed in these ten years is the awareness that I have become a creation watcher.  Never have I been so aware of the things which have always been around; yet, unseen.  Perhaps, I was too busy with other things.  Or, maybe, I did not have eyes to see what appeared invisible, but was actually in plain sight.  One of the first things which came in those beginning years that started ten years ago was the understanding that I no longer lived close to a church building, but inside a cathedral defined by horizons instead of walls.  And, inside that cathedral of creation, God could be counted on to reveal Himself.