As I happened to spend quality time with myriads of Lord’s creations this summer of 2023, I have been having this joyful “burden” to add this very significant section to my blog, both for believers(as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are drawn to His creation,that is, our heavenly Father’s creation, by default) and unbelievers who are nature lovers. Most importantly, this addition is to add to my joy, simply because “The joy of the Lord is my strength”- Nehemiah 8:10. The joy of the Lord is to draw the hearts of people to His Son so we too can become His children in and through Him alone. The Lord desires to protect every soul from His wrath in and through His Son by anointing each one with His Holy Spirit. It is the Lord Who does His work of reconciliation and we cannot labour in His love without loving others with the love with which the Lord has loved us and continues to love us forever.
I am thinking the Lord was first preparing me as His child by renewing my heart and mind first to look at His creation the way He wants us to see, that is, as His creation as it is, before sharing the same with others for His glory and to humble us by His grace.I prayerfully like to think that now was the time, beginning from April 2023. Hence, all the pics that I will share from the daily walk of my life are the ones captured after April of this year (for the most part) that have inspired me to relate the visual beauty with His Word- - His Word, that is the source of all creation! (whenever I took opportunity to take a moment or some amount of time to contemplate and just be in front of what I “saw” both with my physical and spiritual eyes open)
The Lord has given me the opportunity to be surrounded by and often spend time with many family members, friends and acquaintances who love to spend time with nature for various reasons. The jaw-dropping visual beauty of the Lord’s creation obviously is one common reason that draws every nature loving heart to His creation. Some of them go on hiking trails to “achieve” a better view and to experience a sense of awe and grandeur of His beauty which is beyond the description of mere words. Some walk through His creation with a sense of wonder and curiosity and try to articulate their imaginary thoughts in various ways to seek a vain sense of satisfaction. Some seek a deeper meaning,purpose, centre or anchor to life,widen or modify perspective towards life or seek answers to life’s several questions. Some delve into this adventure with nature for “self” discovery which is notoriously popular in this age through several practices in the name of being “still”, hoping to get meaningful revelations of the Supreme, that is, the Creator, the Lord Himself. Some vainly make effort to connect with the Lord Who is but Spirit aimlessly through His beautiful creation which is nothing but His manifestation and not a medium or a way to be able to see Him. For some, the purpose of spending time with nature could be as simple as delving into the simple joys of life by indulging all the senses into what the Lord’s creation has to offer with their near and dear ones and being able to appreciate and admire what they experience more and more. Some find a sense of satisfaction in acquiring more and more knowledge about the world around them and in the process, this very hunger for knowledge has led to preserving nature as our basic sense of duty and also serving humanity better through application of this knowledge in various disciplines of studies.
Here is why I thought of sharing this additional section
1. To keep in mind the irony of our Creator’s creation - The imperishable One created it all by the power of His Word, but it is all perishable. All of it.
2. To seek and behold the imperishable beauty of our Creator, as our Lord and personal Saviour - in the “face” of our only true and living Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ- the beauty of Whom when revealed to us, as His gift, surpasses the beauty of all of His very own Creation. The Lord has placed all creation under the subjection of His feet. He is under sovereign control, “For in Him, through Him and for Him was all created!” in the first place - Colossians 1:15-17.
The connecting bridge between points 1 and 2 is the Lord Himself- that is Lord Jesus Christ, Who takes us from mortality to immortality, from temporal state of being to eternal life and from being subject to judgement to being redeemed and delivered!
(* John 14:6- Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me..
* John 17:3- And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
* John 10:30- “I and the Father are One”)
3. To share the wisdom, understand thoughts of eternal value pertaining to life and godliness revealed from His Word to His children; which can be seeked and found in His creation. Lord Jesus being the source of all wisdom.
4. To realise that all was created by Him for His glory. His creation itself reveals to us various visible attributes of our magnanimous Lord: His power, beauty, sovereignty, creativity, “intelligence” beyond human comprehension, His kindness, graciousness, righteousness, generosity , providence, His harmony, balance and most importantly the fact that He is true, He is living and He is in control of all that He has created and creates. Our free will of choice must correspond to His will for each of us in our life towards Him.
Apart from His creation, the second way in which the Lord has revealed Himself to us is in the flesh, that is as a Lamb of God - through His only begotten Son and our Saviour Lord Jesus Christ Who has been with Him from the beginning…even before the conception of this world. He is the perfect personification of His grace and Truth (John 1:14). Lord Jesus Christ reveals to us who believe that God IS love. And God IS holy. God IS righteous. God IS just.
The subsequent way and the ONLY way in which the Lord continues to reveal to us more of Himself is through the Holy Spirit that He pours in each one of us who choose to believe in His redemptive work for us on the cross and receive Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts allowing Him to reconcile us to Himself. The reveals more of Him to us Who believe so that we too like the rest of His creation are able to glorify Him in and through our lives!(Matthew 5:16. 1 Corinthians 10:31). What a joy, what a privilege, what grace, what honour and what responsibility!
We cannot reconcile to His creation. We were created by the Lord so that we can reconcile to Him in and through His Son Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can glorify Him. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21. 1 John 5:12).
Finally, all those set apart through faith as His anointed ones (to walk in the newness of His life) eagerly await the second coming of Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of His glory, no longer as The Saviour but as the Judge, to reconcile those who are His to Himself and to establish New Heaven and New Earth. (The Book of Revelation in the Bible talks about His second coming in great detail, besides several other prophecies and verses through the Scriptures, both in Old and the New Testament). This is the final revelation of Lord Jesus Christ as Lord of the Lords and King of Kings after which we will be able to see Him fully as He is.
The Summary: All shall pass away, but the Word of God endures forever.
1. for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,“All flesh is like grass, And all its glory is like the flower of grass.The grass withers,And the flower falls off,25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,“All flesh is like grass,And all its glory is like the flower of grass.The grass withers,And the flower falls off,25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
2. “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”- Matthew 24:29-30
3. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”- Revelation 21:1-5 (Isaiah 65:17-24)
4. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”- Matthew 24:35