Creation declares the glory of God
A PLACE TO PAUSE AND APPRECIATE THE BEAUTY AND GLORY OF GOD’S CREATION
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FLOWERS – GOD’S BEAUTIFUL HANDIWORK
I was very blessed to be able to spend some long hours in some great parks and gardens in June / July of 2010. As I walked and enjoyed the beauty, intricate design, and sheer variety of the flowers that I saw, I couldn’t help thinking of Luke 12: 27-28: “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you …”
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REGENT’S PARK, LONDON
I was in London to attend a conference, and our conference venue was right across the road from Regent’s Park. When the conference ended (just after lunch), I took myself off to the park, thinking I would spend an hour or so looking round. After all, I was right on the doorstep of Regent’s Park; I had to at least pay it a visit. As one of my friends at the conference said, “It would be rude not to.” Little did I know that I would find it so wonderful and refreshing to wander among the flowers and meditate on God’s awesome creativity that it would be evening before I reluctantly dragged myself out of the park and went in search of dinner.
You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. (Revelation 4: 11)
Lilies (Regent's Park, London, 2010)
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Tintinara Rose Plant in the rose garden in Queen Mary's Gardens, Regent's Park, London - Walking around this garden was a privilege. ONE beautiful flower, I might be able to overlook. But hundreds upon hundreds, all intricately-formed, with the same basic pattern, yet each completely individual? I find myself thinking: How is it possible that God would flood a PLANT with so much beauty? And if He is willing to do that with a plant, how much more would He be willing to do that with a human life? (See Luke 12:27-28.)
Flowers in Regent's Park, London (2010)
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Fuchsias in Regent's Park, London - I marvel at the precision of each flower. How could anyone imagine that this was not divinely created?
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"Just Joey" from the Rose Garden, Queen Mary's Gardens, Regent's Park (2010)
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Bud of the "Nostalgia" rose plant, Queen Mary's Gardens, Regent's Park (2010)
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Nostalgia Roses
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Regent's Park
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Delphinium bud, Regent's Park, 2010
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“THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND EVERYTHING IN IT, THE WORLD, AND ALL WHO LIVE IN IT
FOR HE FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS AND ESTABLISHED IT UPON THE WATERS.” (PSALM 24:1-2)
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WINTERBOURNE BOTANIC GARDENS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, UK
The Winterbourne Botanic Gardens are possibly the most beautiful gardens I have ever been in. It’s the kind of place I could walk in, or just sit in, for hours. Walking round, I was just amazed at the variety of different flowers that kept appearing round every corner that I turned. Just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be any other shape of flower, or any other combination of colours, a new one appeared. It led me to wonder: Why did God create so many different flowers? I wonder if it’s because He wanted to show us that His power, His mercies, His blessings, His mind, and His creativity know no bounds? He is capable of “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). When we think that we’ve seen all the blessings He has to give, we haven’t. There’s always infinitely more that God is capable of giving. And when we can’t imagine that there is anything other than what we currently see before our eyes, we are wrong, because God’s divine imagination and vision far exceed ours, and He sees possibilities even where we see none.
“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32: 27)
Daisies at Winterbourne, July 2010
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Close-up of a daisy, July 2010
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Yellow Tiger Lily, Winterbourne, July 2010. Look at a flower through eyes searching for a Designer. It won't be difficult to find evidence for it.
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Was God concerned only with creating a world that would be useful to us, or did He care about beauty as well? Genesis 2:9 records that God created trees that were "pleasing to the eye and good for food". Ours is a God who cares not only about feeding us physically, but also about feeding us spiritually.
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Winterbourne Gardens, 2010
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This just looks like God opened up His paintbox one day, intent on capturing a burst of joy in a flower.
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Columbines, Winterbourne Botanic Gardens
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Lupins, Winterbourne, July 2010
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“FOR BY HIM [JESUS] ALL THINGS WERE CREATED: THINGS IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE … ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM AND FOR HIM.” (COLOSSIANS 1:16)
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MORE WACKY AND WONDERFUL CREATIONS THAT DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD
Echinops or Globe Thistle, Museum of Garden History, London, July 2010. What a wonderful design!
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A kind of allium, at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, London, June 2010. This was definitely worthy of a "wow". Everyone visiting the Royal Observatory at Greenwich rounded a little corner, caught sight of the small field of alliums, and immediately pulled out their cameras.
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Fuchsias in Selly Oak, Birmingham, July 2010. Nature's little Chinese lanterns?
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Passiflower or Passion Flower, taken outside a house in the Bayswater area of London, July 2010. This is one I couldn't conjure up if I tried. I can't believe how intricately and perfectly formed this is.
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Dandelion that has gone to seed, Kensington Gardens, London, July 2010. Dandelions are typically regarded as weeds, but I like what Jan Sutch Pickard says in the introduction to the book 'Dandelions and Thistles: Biblical Meditations from the Iona Community' (Wild Goose Publications, Glasgow, 1999): "But what is a weed but a flower where you least expect it?" (p. 7).
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“Every time we look at something built by man – a house, for example – we know it had a builder, someone who assembled it. When we see something that has design, like a watch, we know it had a designer who planned it. When we see artwork, like a painting, we know there is an artist who painted it. When we observe order – say twenty Coke cups lined up in a row – we know there was an “orderer” who set them up that way.
When we look around the universe at things not made by man, what do we see? We see creation, design, art, and order. So if everything man-made has a creator, designer, artist, or orderer behind it, why would we not think that there is a Creator, Designer, Artist, and Orderer behind the universe?”
Mark Cahill, One Heartbeat Away: Your Journey into Eternity (BDP Publishing, 2007), pp. 15-16.
Please also see The Wonder of Creation.
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All photographs by Ramona Tang. Page created July 2010.
