Discovering the Infinite Ways that God is Found in Nature
God made nature.
He did not make it to just sit there and look pretty. He had to have a purpose to make it. We never really appreciate the good things in nature.
Yes, the weather channel is always there, but they are blowing things out of proportion and making people think that the way the sun hits on a certain day will bring the end of the world.
No! It will not.
“He hath established them forever, and for ages of ages: he hath made a decree, and it shall not pass away.” Ps. 148: 6
No one can control it except God. We have to look at the positive and see God’s hand in nature, the creator of this gentle giant.
Here are a few points that I have found.
Shining Grace into Our Lives
The sun is a very necessary item in our lives. It provides heat, light, and food for the plants. The sun is not just a bright round ball of fire, though. It can be a reminder of God’s grace and love for us. It is a material object that we can look at and think about the many graces in our lives and how God makes it shine in our hearts.
As St. Francis of Assisi says,” A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.” The sun is a sign of grace and love. The rays forever shine forth. Happiness, which everybody needs in their lives, is also shown through God via the sun.
So, let the shadows be driven away by sacramental confession and a contrite spirit, for God will always let the sun of grace shine in our souls, even if the sun is not shining outside.
A Wave of Peace
“Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and clouds and storms, and all the weather, through which you give your creatures sustenance”, as St. Francis of Assisi so eloquently puts it.
The wind gives sustenance to us too but in a different way. It gives us peace, and peace is something that people thrive on. Let the wind sweep your fears away, for God wants us to have peace in our hearts, not hatred or anger, for those are not from God. Anger and hatred are a poison which the devil uses to influence people because the devil wants that hatred to spread. The only way he can do that is through us.
The wind, just one sweeping gust, can remind us how God can tear apart the veil of anger that plagues so many in this world. God uses the wind as an instrument of peace. Let us also be instruments of peace. Always remember that God can handle it.
Whether you need it for a stressful book report, or you just need it to escape the problems of everyday life, God, like a gentle breeze, will always be there to calm you.
Reminders of God’s Providence
The flowers not only smell good, but they also remind us of God’s providence.
It is quoted in the Bible:
“And for raiment, why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these…For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.” Matthew 6: 28-29, 32.
Our Lord knows our needs. He made us, and He knows what we need even when we do not think of it. Life throws us into situations that we feel are impossible to get through, yet God makes the impossible possible.
By giving us tools and ideas, we can get out of a rut and continue on. Believe me, my family has been through a lot of ruts, yet we always get through them due to God’s providence.
The flowers remind us of just that. God provides everything for them. They do not need anything!
The flowers need God, just as we need God. God made the flowers to remind us that if He can remember a little lily in a random field, and provide everything for it, He can certainly provide us with the necessary tools for our stay on this earth, too.
Daily Masterpieces – Gifts from God
Every day, twice a day, two great paintings are shown all around the world, and never seen again.
Can you guess what I am talking about? Yes, they are the sunrises and the sunsets!
The painter of the beautiful creations is God, our Father.
Remember, He made Da Vinci, the great painter! Imagine that… all of the great sculptors, painters, and artists were created and their gifts were given to them by God! The beautiful sunrise sometimes is the only thing that gets us up in the morning! The morning is not a time to hear annoying alarm clocks buzzing in our brains; it is a time to listen to the birds singing and see the sunrise.
The great reds, blues, and pinks (my favorite color!) light up the sky, so as to cover it completely! Where the sun meets the sky for the first time that day, it can be a wonderful inspiration for poems, paintings, or articles (like this one!)
The sunsets are also there to calm a person down after a stressful time, or to be a perfect ending to a perfect day. We have a wonderful gift bestowed upon us daily, which, sadly, some people do not get to see.
We should take advantage of this lost gift, and be thankful to God that we are even able to see another sunrise and sunset.
Seize the Opportunity
I encourage you to praise God for nature and through nature, as St. Francis and Assisi did in the Canticle of the Sun. The Canticle of the Sun is a beautiful way to thank God!
Some people use nature for the bad, and that is really sad because nature is God’s amazing creation. We should see it as that. Everything that I have said about nature is inspired by God.
Maybe, instead of looking at an iPhone, we should get our head out of the box and look at what truly matters and what cannot wait another day. For that sunset will never come back, it will never be replicated. We should also just see it for what it is, and not waste our sight on bad things. For sight is a gift, so we should look at our other gifts with the gift of sight too.
As the great St. John Paul II advised,
“The way Jesus shows you is not easy. Rather, it is like a path winding up a mountain. Do not lose heart! The steeper the road, the faster it rises toward ever wider horizons!”
About Ivana Gatto
My name is Ivana Gatto. I'm in 7th grade, at Seton. I was inspired by Seton to write. By the many book reports and paragraphs that I had to do in school, it made me realize that I truly have a gift. I like to cook, sew, knit, and crochet. I also enjoy playing the violin, piano, and recorder. I love nature and everything in it! My family is definitely my supporters through everything, especially my mother, and my sister, who is a very good writer, in my family's book!
