Wildflowers in Spray Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington
I read a quote on Facebook the other day that went something like this: “I go walking in nature because there I feel what I never felt in church.”
North Falls, Silver Falls State Park, Oregon
At first glance, I was tempted to be offended. How can someone say something like that about God’s world – effectively saying, “I love what you made, but I hate you”? But then I realized that they were missing the point entirely.
Dead tree along the South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Going to church isn’t about a feeling. It’s about God. If you miss the God factor, you won’t get much out of church.
Mt. Hood from the Mirror Lake Trail, Oregon
Getting a “feeling” from the wilderness really isn’t about the wilderness, either. God has placed a part of Himself there, which is how you can feel Him without necessarily realizing it. But like church, if all you go for is a “feeling”, you might get something, but if you go with an objective that doesn’t include God, you’re missing the point.
Nooksack Creek, Mt. Baker National Forest, Washington
The “feeling” a person gets in the wilderness has God at its core. You can’t separate an artist from his or her art, and you can’t separate God and His creation. The two come together as a package deal.
Rock formations in the Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico
It’s tragic that people go into the Creator’s creation and feel Him, but then feel nothing when they enter a place created for the honor and glory of the Creator. But I would like to suggest that while God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), He reveals Himself in different ways in different places. For example, God showed Himself to Hagar, Abraham and Sarah’s servant, as “The God Who Sees Me” (Genesis 16:13). But He revealed Himself to Gideon as mighty to save and as peace (see Judges 6). Elijah met God face to face as a still, small whisper (1 Kings 19:12-13). Moses was face to face with God, who revealed Himself as, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14).
Wildflowers along the Brewer Creek Trail, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, California
It’s not implausible that God would reveal Himself differently in a church building than in a wild canyon. It’s still all God; nothing separates Him from His God-liness. You will meet the same God in either place. But the revelation is different.
Along the Queens Garden Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
For us as Christians, we have the privilege of meeting a God we know personally in a church building or in an alpine meadow. But for someone who doesn’t yet know God, the wilderness may be the first or only place they meet Him – the place where God reveals Himself in such a way that they have the desire to come to Him and find relationship with Him.
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