3.09.2008

Nature...

I know I haven't written in a while, and now I'm going to write only for the purpose of sharing another quote from C.S. Lewis' book called "Miracles".

"...only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little away from her, and then turn round, and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature's current. To treat her as God, or as Everything, is to lose the whole pith and pleasure of her. Come out, look back, and then you will see...this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas: this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, canaries, fleas, gases, tornadoes and toads. How could you ever have thought that this was the ultimate reality? How could you ever have thought that it was merely a stage-set for the moral drama of men and women? She is herself. Offer her neither worship nor contempt. Meet her and know her. If we are immortal, and if she is doomed(as the scientists tell us) to run down and die, we shall miss this half-shy and half-flamboyant creature, this ogress, this hoyden, this incorrigible fairy, this dumb witch. But the theologians tell us that she, like ourselves, is to be redeemed. The 'vanity' to which she was subjected was her disease, not her essence. She will be cured, but cured in character: not tamed(Heaven forbid) nor sterilised. We shall still be able to recognise our old enemy, friend, playfellow and foster-mother, so perfected as to be not less, but more, herself. And that will be a merry meeting."
-pg 80-81, "Miracles"

I just thought this was a neat passage, just reminding us that nature is not meant to be worshipped nor cursed, but that it is meant to be taken as it is, the way God made it, and with all its flaws from the sin of our world.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the evening.

Love, Ash

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ash
It has taken me a while to get back to you with a comment on this posting.
I thought that if I gave it some time to sink in, that I might be able to come back with something profound,
but after thinking about it and rereading it, I do not think I could expound any better than you did with your wrap up!

On that note I leave you
with all my love XOXO NAN

Anonymous said...

Here is a PS to my first comment . It is actually what I closed my own Care page with last night and I suddenly thought that it tied in with your reading.

" Are you looking for a sign that God is out there and He cares?
Simply stop and look around you.
His presence can be found in the smile of a stranger or a dandelion growing in the crack in the midst of a concrete jungle.
He is in the call of a bird or the buzz of a mosquito.
Wherever you see life or beauty you'll find the fingerprints of God.
Until next time, rejoice.
The God of the Bible is alive and well and He is calling to us all the time."

I hope you all enjoyed this beautiful day today.
Spring must soon be around the corner!
xoxo Again
from NAN