I teach my kids a lot of things.
But I learn a whole lot from them as well.
One thing they constantly show me is that beauty is all around us. Kids appreciate the creativity of God’s creation in a way that adults often miss.
And they remind us that seeing God through nature is as easy as walking out the back door.
Whether you live in a huge city or on a 100 acres of land in the middle of nowhere…God’s fingerprint is evident.
One tiny seed…
My six-year-old recently completed a unit at school on plants. As party of their study, her teacher sent each of the students home with a handful of random seeds.
My daughter begged to plant those seeds in our small backyard garden. We already had several plants filling different beds. And to be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about tending more foliage.
But her excitement was contagious, so I gave in. She had pumpkin, carrot, green bean, and sunflower seeds. We found appropriate spots and put them carefully in the ground.
After planting, I didn’t give the seeds much more thought. My daughter, however, checked on them often. She waited on pins and needles for the first plant to peek it’s head out of the ground.
After a few weeks, a pumpkin stem began to emerge. Over the course of the summer that plant wound its way around and around the container bed that it called home. We were amazed that such a long vine could grow from one tiny seed!
Each day was an adventure for my daughter, checking to see where the end of the vine had landed and how many pumpkin flowers were attached.
There was no doubt…that pumpkin plant was a highlight of our garden that year.
But it was the sunflowers that truly surprised us.
A towering beauty…
The first flower came up several weeks after planting. In the beginning it didn’t look all that different from the other wildflowers in the bed.
But it quickly proved it was anything but ordinary.
That sunflower grew at an exceptionally fast rate. Each morning that we looked out the window it seemed several inches taller than the day before.
The stem became thick and sturdy. Before long, it grew higher than my six-year-old. It then surpassed my oldest daughter. And just like that, it became even taller than my husband!
We played guessing games about the sunflower’s final height. Surely, we thought, it had to be almost full grown.
But we were wrong.
It just kept growing.
And then one morning we looked out the window and couldn’t believe our eyes. The flower was taller than the large shed in our backyard! It reached farther into the sky than any sunflower I’d ever seen.
And then it stopped.
But the show wasn’t over. By now, our entire family was intrigued. We waited with bated breath for it to bloom.
And then one day…it did. It was so tall, the bloom was difficult to see. But we could tell the huge flower had not disappointed us. The yellow petals were gigantic and the dark center just as big.
We checked on it often, whether by walking outside to the garden or watching it through our kitchen window. My daughter noted how it’s huge bloom followed the direction of the sun.
And boy was that flower resilient! It survived multiple heavy thunderstorms, it’s stem and leaves holding steady despite strong winds and pounding rain. It endured days on end of scorching sun and high heat.
That flower stood proudly in our garden through the entire growing season.
Seeing God through nature…
But even the strongest and brightest flowers can’t last forever. As summer drew to a close, the petals started to wilt. The leaves began to turn brown and the huge flower started to droop.
My daughter was sad as she watched it decline a little more each day. We knew the towering sunflower’s time was limited.
But its presence that summer had taught us an important lesson. One I hoped would far outlast the sunflower’s beauty.
You see, I don’t know all that much about gardening. And I know next to nothing about sunflowers.
We’d simply put the seed in the ground and watered it here and there.
God had done the rest.
Check out “20 Verses About Connecting with God Through Nature“ for more on finding God in the great outdoors.
That simple sunflower was a powerful reminder of God’s creativity. And that He alone is responsible for the beauty and splendor that surrounds us every day.
Seeing God through nature isn’t hard. Slowing down enough to stop and take it all in is where it gets difficult for most of us.
A gentle reminder…
But kids don’t have that problem.
For them, life is not defined by time.
It’s enjoyed by experience.
They find infinite wonder in a tiny caterpillar. Marvel endlessly over a colorful rock. They giggle uncontrollably after a roll in the soft grass. They never tire of freshly fallen snow.
I’m pretty sure all this delight never fails to put a smile on the Father’s face. His created fully embracing His creation. Enjoying the beauty of this world just as He designed it. Pure perfection.
And that kind of approach to life can teach us a thing or two about seeing God through nature as well.
Like how to linger a moment longer to find peace in the sound of a gentle rainstorm. Or feeling the exhilaration of a beautiful sunrise on a long drive to work.
Drinking in the refreshment of a slow walk on a crisp fall day. Or appreciating the indescribable wonder in the stillness of gently falling snow.
Kids don’t have to work hard to experience creation as God intended. But sometimes as adults, we do.
This world can be a difficult place. Seeing beauty isn’t always easy. But just because we often miss it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still there.
A shift in perspective might be all we need to open our eyes. Perhaps a child is the perfect one to teach us that the most beautiful parts of this world are best experienced through eyes of awe and wonder.
And that seeing God through nature can happen anywhere…you only need to look around.
Can you recall a time when seeing God through nature inspired your faith? Please share in the comments below!
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