Nature - Window to Seeing God's Glory

As I've alluded to before, I've been quite taken with the book, Last Child in the Woods. I've so enjoyed the fresh inspiration to get my boys out into the glorious outdoors to experience and connect with nature. The ultimate WHY cannot be found in that book however. At the recommendation from a friend, I recently read Al Mohler's thoughts on this book and was reminded why I love nature so much and why I consider it so important for my boys. It is because "a child who experiences the sense of wonder in the face of creation is learning, not only about nature, but [ultimately] about the glory of God."

Here is an excerpt from the article. The rest of the article can be found here.

"There is a great loss here, and not just to a child's sense of wellbeing or knowledge of nature. Christians celebrate the fact that God created the cosmos as a display of His glory. A child who experiences the sense of wonder in the face of creation is learning, not only about nature, but about the glory of God.
Put simply, the child is not going to have that experience while sitting in front of a digital screen. No video game can replace the wonder of a mountain sunset, a cascading river, or a spider's web covered with morning dew. As the Psalmist declared, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" [Psalm 19:1].
In the closing chapters of the Book of Job, God speaks to Job about His Lordship over all the earth. The Creator exults in goats, donkeys, wild oxen, ostriches, and hawks. The Creator expresses His good pleasure in the fact that the "majestic snorting" of the horse is terrifying and in the eagle's ability to set its nest so far above the ground.
Children (and adults) who have no contact with the outdoor world are robbed of devotional knowledge, not just of natural interests.

The secular world increasingly sees "nature-deficit disorder" as a therapeutic problem. Christians should see it as a theological problem. Don't let the summer pass without spending some serious time in the natural world -- and teach your kids to see the supernatural meaning of nature all around them."

Nature has so much to teach us about who God is and his glorious creativity. May my boys always be enthralled with and recognize the Master's handiwork!