The Goodness of Creation
The longer I live and get to experience the created world with all of my five senses, the more I am convinced that it’s much harder to be an atheist when you are outside. When I am in my house or office surrounded by concrete, wood, and metal, I can pretty easily forget about God. But the moment I do something as simple as step outside into my backyard, I am confronted with beauty, life, and goodness. I hear a symphony of birds singing in a chorus, their volume far outweighing their small size. I can feel the cool wind on my face and see different shades of green leaves moving in the wind. I often hear a hawk calling out in my backyard and see its majestic movements as it glides through the air. In short, as soon as I go outside, I am confronted with an experience of splendor and delight that is bigger than myself. I am confronted with the overwhelming truth that there is an entire world of good things that I didn’t create or earn in any way. And when I see anything in the natural world, I’m reminded of the God who made it all.
The idea of being confronted by God through the natural world is something we see throughout the Bible, in places like Psalm 19, where King David writes, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge…Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” So David is saying that when we go outside, it’s as if the created world is shouting to everyone and everything, proclaiming the glory and goodness of God. What message does the created world have for us about God when we slow down enough to feel and enjoy its blessings? When I go outside and look out from the top of a sandstone cliff and can see miles of trees and
hills spanning the horizon, I hear that God’s power and goodness are vast beyond measure. When I feel the sun on my body on a perfectly blue-sky day, I’m reminded that God has sent the sun to sustain my life and the lives of everyone else on planet Earth, an incredibly gracious gift that can be enjoyed by every human being. In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul says something similar this way, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
Another way of describing the importance of God’s created world is that we get to experience the goodness of God in a uniquely embodied way whenever we go outside. We read about the goodness of God whenever we pick up our Bibles or read books. But when we go outside, we don’t just understand rational truths; we actually get to experience those truths through our bodies. We ingest those truths into us through our five senses in ways that give us a distinct experience of God.
Some interesting scientific research has bolstered the truth that human beings experience remarkably good things simply from going outside and experiencing God’s created world. Scientific studies have shown that spending time outside around trees can actually reduce cortisol levels, an important stress hormone. Plants and trees also produce organic compounds called phytoncides, and studies have shown that inhaling these compounds can help boost parts of your immune system, which is responsible for fighting off diseases and infections. Other studies have linked spending time in the woods with lower blood pressure and helping with the effects of depression. There has actually been a modern movement called “forest bathing,” a practice of deliberately seeking out the health benefits of nature through spending time in the woods, something our human ancestors have been doing for thousands of years, even before they knew the full health benefits.
In case you haven’t already guessed, I am somewhat of an amateur outdoor enthusiast. I don’t hunt because I’m too squeamish to kill animals, but I would totally be down to sit in a tree stand in some remote woods and watch the sun come up. I enjoy doing things like rock climbing, backpacking, hiking, and canoeing or kayaking. Swimming in creeks and rivers has been a lifelong recreational activity for me. My love for the natural world is something that my parents helped cultivate in me from a young age. Some of my earliest and favorite childhood memories of our family involved camping trips. We would regularly go to places like Fall Creek Falls State Park and the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, Wheeler and Guntersville State Parks in Alabama. When I was a pre-teen and later as a teenager, we drove out West to camp and stay in places like Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado. Now that I am older, I have gotten back into climbing, a sport I began in college but put down for a long time until the last five or six years. This activity has only more deeply fueled my deep love for God’s big, beautiful world. And over the years, I have been very blessed to be able to see some incredible places. When I was in high school, I got to see up close the barren beauty of the mountainous deserts of Mexico. Later in college, I had the chance to visit Belize in Central America twice. During my second trip, I hiked to Blue Creek Cave with some friends, swam deep inside of the cave following the crystal clear water that was illuminated only by our headlamps. The locals call this Hokeb Ha Cave, which roughly translates from Mayan, “Where the water enters the earth.” I have been able to see the stunning first light of the sun illuminate a snowy Long’s Peak, a large mountain over 14,000 feet on a hike in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I have felt the exhilarating rush of climbing in Red Rocks, Nevada, when I looked down at the top of a red and brown cliff and saw nearly one thousand feet between the ground and myself. And I have soaked in the wonder of the wild, vast beauty of a place like the unparalleled Linville Gorge in North Carolina. And now that I am older, I understand that all these places are very special to me, not simply because of their stunning views and the memories I made there, but also because in all these places I have been able to experience something unique about the character of God. All these places remind me that God is very big and I am small. And in these beautiful places, God’s largeness doesn’t make me feel worthless, but deeply grateful that I get to experience so many good gifts that I didn’t create or merit through anything I have done. The older I get, the more I have become a huge believer in the therapeutic benefits of regularly getting outside and moving my body while immersed in the beautiful world God has made. Doing this has become not just a recreational option for me but an essential way that I calm and rejuvenate my heart, body, and mind.
So the next time you are feeling low or depressed, the next time God feels far away or indifferent, I would encourage you to do something as simple as go outside. Feel the warm sun on your body. Take a walk somewhere where you can see trees and grass. Do any kind of outdoor exercise and simply focus on the breath going in and out of your body as you feel your arms and legs move. And listen to the good truths that the created world is speaking to us all the time, telling us that God is real and that He is gracious and good. Finding ways to enjoy God’s created world is one of the most important things we can do for our mental, physical, and spiritual health.
