Don't let summer melt away

 

“The more I study nature, the more I am amazed at the Creator.” 

                                               Louis Pasteur

  There are some people who can eat ice cream 365 days a year. Not me. To me, ice cream should only be eaten when it’s hot outside (in Wisconsin, we may have to settle for warm). There’s nothing more delightful than an ice cream cone on a hot summer day. You have to lick at a decent pace or it drips away. The tongue has to get in gear to stay ahead. It’s a dilemma of when to stop licking and when to start nibbling at the cone. Take a bite too soon and you’re self-sabotaged with a disintegrating, gooey mess. Wait too long and it’s flowing over the sides and dripping on the ground. 

  Though I love all of the fancy flavors that you find in ice cream shops, to me there’s nothing better than homemade. Maybe it’s because hardly anyone makes it and nostalgia has set in. Homemade was simple. Usually, it’s vanilla, though I do remember having homemade peach once. 

  If I buy ice cream to take home, I usually opt for butter pecan. But if I’m buying a cone, it’s hard to make a decision. And just when I was already overwhelmed with far too many options, they begin offering multiple options on the type of cones. Who can go back to an old plain one when the waffle ones seek to seduce your taste buds. 

  Summer is a lot like an ice cream cone on a hot day. Before you know it, it’s all melted away. While I love the four seasons that God has given us, summer is the one where we can relish and enjoy all of God’s wonderful creation. You don’t have to scurry back inside for warmth. God’s natural warmth is out there for all to delight in with the beauties of His creation.  Summer is when all of our senses are nearly overwhelmed. If it’s not the scent of flowers, it’s the dank smell of evergreens. Rainbows follow thunderstorms filling our eyes with beauty and the reminder of God’s promise during the day. Star-filled skies wink at us at night. 

  Summer is a time to turn off, shut down and unplug. The nature outside is so wonderful it’s not comparable to the artificial screens inside. Man’s technology can’t begin to compete with the Creator’s artistry. God never has to worry about a power outage or poor WIFI reception for His gallery display. Do you realize how many times you’ve actually looked at luscious lollipop-colored tulips in your lifetime? If you’re my age, maybe a couple of hundred measly days out of 22,000? Summer never seems to last long enough. It blows by like an afternoon shower. 

  And God generously gives the gifts of His creation to everyone. You don’t have to be part of the jet-set to enjoy a chorus of birds greeting a new morning. A big bank account isn’t needed to smell fresh flowers. God’s creation declares His glory. The heavens speak forth the praises of God and reveal the knowledge of God to mankind. God’s testimony to Himself in creation is unmistakable. His creation declares His glory. 

  The psalmist reminds us that God’s creation speaks to all people everywhere. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Ps. 19:3-4). Creation is a universal blessing for everyone everywhere. 

  God’s creation has no language barrier. It’s understood by all. This revelation of God is understood by all. One of the biggest barriers missionaries face in bringing the gospel to other peoples is a language barrier. The knowledge of God that comes from creation transcends every language. It’s like a giant universal translator from Star Trek. It can be understood by all. 

  God’s creation has no volume barrier. It’s heard by all. Imagine if you were broadcasting the gospel into a country in the people’s own language, but none of them had their radios turned on, or the signal was so faint they couldn’t pick it up. You’d have broken the language barrier, but would still have a volume barrier. It doesn’t do any good to speak the language if the people can’t hear you. But the psalmist points out, there is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. The knowledge of God in creation comes through loud and clear. You may choose to ignore it, but you can’t escape it. Everyone hears the revelation of God that comes through creation. No one can miss hearing it. There’s no volume barrier with this revelation. It’s heard by all. 

  God’s creation has no distance barrier. It’s given to all. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” Going back to the radio analogy, imagine you’re broadcasting the gospel using special universal translator technology. Everyone who hears your transmission can understand it. Not only that, everywhere you broadcast, people have their radios on and turned up. They can hear what you’re saying. But how far does your transmission go? What if your transmitter only broadcasts to a fifty-mile or hundred-mile range? There would still be a lot of people missing out. 

  God’s testimony in creation has no distance barrier. It’s universal. The voice of creation goes out into all the earth, the words to the ends of the world. There’s not a place in all the earth from the Arctic to the Amazon where you’re not faced with God’s testimony of Himself in creation.  

  Though Albert Einstein was not a Christian, yet as he looked at the wonders of the universe, he knew that there must be a God. When asked by an interviewer if he was an atheist, he replied, “No,” and explained his answer. “I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.” 

  Einstein understood the eternal power and divine nature of God from what had been made. Why? Because creation reveals knowledge of God to us. 

  Yes, we need to read His book, the Bible, in order to know God and His dealings with us, His will for us and provision for our salvation. Creation is natural revelation. God’s Book is Special Revelation. It’s only as we learn of God from His Book that we can truly begin to read His book of creation as He intended. Let’s make sure we spend sufficient time in the Bible. 

  But we must also take time to read and enjoy His “book” of creation. For we can also know, love, and worship our great God through His amazing creation that speaks forth His praises to everyone, everywhere, every day.

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