From My Nature Journal -- Celebrating Earth Day by Praying through the Creation Story: Day 4, "Aware"

Introduction: The ways people pursue God, or even pray, can be as different as the very people who pursue God. Spiritual writers and mentors have long appreciated these varieties of pathways that pilgrims have followed in their prayer journey. For example, many are led to deep devotion through such things as music, contemplation or activism, but others have found that it’s the beauty and mystery of the natural, created world that leads them to a humbling encounter of praise and prayer with their Creator God. Of course, the pathways mix to varying degrees according to our personalities and interests.

Those who find nature an important spiritual pathway can see their own faith story unfold in the creation story of Genesis 1 and 2 in the Christian and Jewish Bible. Being mindful not to worship creation but only the Creator, a consideration of the natural world not only helps them do that, but also guides them in their stewardship of what God has created. Each day this week we will look to the ‘seven day’ creation story from these first two chapters of the Bible’s very first book. All references are from the Bible’s New Revised Standard Version.

Day 4 – “Aware” -- And God said, “Let there be lights in the… sky… to give light upon the earth…” (Genesis 1:14-15)

Read: Genesis 1:1, Genesis 1:14-19, Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 8 and Matthew 16:1-4

Reflect: Lights in the firmament… Yes, enjoying the beauty of sky phenomena – sunrises and sets, rainbows, shooting stars, clouds, sundogs, aurora, glorioles, constellations and planets – is all about being in the right place at the right time to see them. But they’re also about something else: awareness. How often have I lifted my eyes to a fading rainbow or gloriole (a ring around the sun -- see photo above, a shot I took while visiting my daughter in ALaska), or missed the meteorite someone else in the group is always bound to see, because I was too preoccupied to notice them. I not only missed the chance for beauty, I missed the chance for gratitude. Say nothing of the pleasures of the more heady pursuits of astronomy or meteorology; there are myriad simple pleasures to be observed.

Oh, to have the curious, wholehearted spirit of a King David in Psalm 8, or of a John Muir, the grandpappy of Christian naturalists, who was quoted, “Look at that now… And to think that God should plan to bring us feckless creatures here at just the right moment, and then flash such glories at us! Man, we are not worthy of such honor! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!” I’m not even certain what ‘feckless’ is, but I can get an idea from Muir’s enthusiasm!

Here’s the clincher, though. Our awareness of God’s constant presence can be as overlooked as our failure to notice or appreciate a rainbow. God said to Noah, “…it shall be a sign…” (Genesis 9:13) How many other signs of God’s presence and faithfulness do I routinely snub?

Observe: We’re back to looking to the sky today, as we did on day 2, but I’ll not ask for a five-minute retreat. Whenever outdoors, try today or tomorrow to simply look up several times throughout the day. Use that moment to notice what God might have up there; but then use the moment also to express your gratitude for God’s relentless, brooding presence over you.

Pray: Lord, a hymnwriter wrote that your lights in the sky “…join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.” I may not notice the glories of the sky as often as you present them, but may I never fail to notice your communications and activity in my life. Amen.

Hymn for the Day: “Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies”

Link for the Day: A blogpost of mine on the size of the universe

POTM...*: "LOOK! Up in the sky... It's... What?"

(*Photo[s] of the Month)

I have been eager to post these. Gail and I took them last month on our way down the mountain from an afternoon drive southwest of Denver. We thought we were noticing some strange color in the midafternoon clouds, but the sun nearby was just too bright to see it well. Then we positioned ourselves where a ridge could block the sun’s glare, and the colors became strong and much more clear. It wasn’t sunset color. It wasn’t some kind of rainbow or sundog. What was it?

Now I know. It’s simply called iridescence, perhaps in this case, more accurately, altostratus iridescence, and it’s a fairly rare sky phenomenon. In fact, I can recall having seen it only one other time, and that was while visiting our kids in Seattle, out with them on a ferry in the middle of Puget Sound. We all looked up at it in collective wonder. These photos here were taken from top to bottom over a seven-minute period at about 3:30pm last midmonth. Click on a photo to enlarge it.

Iridescence is caused by the same atmospheric conditions that create coronas, also fairly rare: light diffracting around an object, in these cases, around a cloud’s water droplets. Coronas (Latin for crown) are round, and surround the actual sun or moon as a rough circle through a bit thicker sky; iridescence is a more imperfect corona, seen more diffusely among mid-level clouds that are sparser but near the sun. With either, the cloud’s water droplets must be of a certain, uniformly small size, and the cloud fairly thin, thus the marvel’s rarity. Additionally, they can be seen best in the presence of altostratus (mid-level, layered) or altocumulus (mid-level, clumped) cloud forms.

I hope that’s not too much science! But if you’re interested in another of the sky’s very interesting optical effects, hit this link and it will take you back to a post I did last summer after seeing a complete sun halo, or aureole, in Alaska. (Hmmm… that was also while visiting my kids: it’s just another good reason for me to visit my kids a lot more often, so I can see cool things in the sky!)

The scriptures say that at Jesus’ second coming he will return ‘from the clouds,’ and that all the earth will see it at once (Revelation 1:7, et al). Years ago one might have wondered how that might even be possible; but today, with satellite transmission and handheld technology it no longer seems unreasonable. How well I remember my beloved Bible professor, Dr. Paul Sebestyen back at North Park College in Chicago, getting absolutely wistful when he would speak about it: the ‘parousia’ as he called it. To this day, when I see phenomena like this I like to pause and imagine Jesus stepping out of the cloud. It’s a happy thought.

Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus. Soon.

~~RGM, January 10, 2014

P.S. Next up? The music...