Enjoy nature

Enjoy nature

Written December 28, 2015

 

Not all that long ago someone told me that I should enjoy nature for those that can’t. When they said that I very nearly cried. There was just something so…profoundly painful…in being told to enjoy something for all those that can’t enjoy it.

I enjoy nature because it gives me the ability to just…be. I stand before a tree and lose myself in looking at it and in thinking of what that tree represents…the Lord’s creation. I enjoy watching the clouds float across the sky because it reminds me that the Lord created miracles for me. I enjoy seeing an ant as it drags something larger than it is across the sand because there is no human explanation for the strength in the ant.

But I also fail to notice nature. I get irritated at the fly that constantly buzzes around my head. I shy away from the wasp that comes near. I don’t enjoy the biting wind of a bitter day or the scorching heat of a summer day when the temperatures get well into the triple digits.

But upon being told to enjoy nature for those that can’t, I began to see things just a bit differently. One day last winter I went to visit my grandmother in a nursing home. To get to her I had to brave the cold day that, although sunny, had left us with snow on the ground. I had to walk through slush and yuck to go see her, had to bundle into warm clothes to ward off the chill in the air. And upon seeing my grandmother she spoke of how she would like to be able to go outside. It didn’t matter how many times we told her the weather wasn’t good for her to go out, she still longed to just get outside. She didn’t care that it was cold, wet, and snowy. She didn’t care that we told her she might fall. She simply longed to see the out of doors.

As I write this it is bitterly cold outside. The temperature is hovering near the freezing point and it is falling. The world, at least where I am, is wet and soggy. There is a very good chance that the surfaces will freeze over tonight even though we have no precipitation forecast.

With the weather bitterly cold outside I found myself in a situation where I had to go out. I wasn’t aware of quite how cold it was until I was well away from the house. The cold didn’t fully penetrate in the moment it took to dash to the car. But I well understood how cold it was when I crossed the parking lot at the store.

Wind blew around the parked cars and sent needles of ice through all but the thickest layers of clothing. My bare hands were freezing within feet of the warm car I had just left. My nose was running by the time I got inside the store.

I did not enjoy nature at that moment.

But now, once again settled inside a warm house, I am reminded of being told to enjoy nature for those who can’t. And I remember how no warning about the weather was enough to make my grandmother change her mind about going outdoors.

The cold that I hurried to escape is a cold that there are those that would relish the chance to simply feel. The wind I wanted to stop blowing would have been a joy to someone. The icy sting that made me long for the gloves I didn’t have would have been a welcomed sensation to someone.

Enjoy nature for those that can’t.

I do so enjoy nature. I love to just sit in the midst of nature. There is something so refreshing, so peaceful, in nature. And yet there is much of it that I don’t bother to appreciate.

I have heard it said that we could never enjoy sunshine if we didn’t experience rain. That we couldn’t appreciate warmth if we never felt cold.

Not all that long ago I was told that we can experience God when we are alone in nature in a way that we can’t do anywhere else. An older gentleman told me that and there was something so very true in that simple statement.

But today I was reminded of how I tend to appreciate the side of nature that I enjoy while rushing to get through the parts of it that I don’t enjoy. The biting wind in freezing temperatures made me wish I’d checked the weather before leaving the house and stayed at home. I rushed to do what I had to do so that I could once again get back into a nice warm house and close the door on that stinging wind that blew through me.

But the stinging wind is a gift that should be appreciated for what it is.

I love nature and the opportunity it gives to draw us closer to the Lord with nothing but the time it takes for us to stand still and gaze upon it.

When my husband and I were first married he observed me doing just that very thing and asked me if I was angry. I couldn’t have been further from anger. I was happy. Content. I was enjoying the moment and was at total and complete peace. And yet, as he looked at me sitting there, seeming to stare into space, he asked if I was angry.

In that moment, and many others like it, my spirit was at complete peace, soaking up the simplicity of the Lord’s creation.

I once read a small booklet called The Dairyman’s daughter, Legh Richmond (1772-1825). And in that booklet I read something that spoke so well of what I feel as I enjoy nature…

 Natural scenery, when viewed in a Christian mirror, frequently affords very beautiful illustrations of divine truth. We are highly favored when we can enjoy them, and at the same time draw near to God in them.

And yet, even as I get such wonderful enjoyment and peace from nature, there are those moments, like today, when the biting cold, the pouring rain, the intense heat, keep me from experiencing that peace that comes with looking at nature through the Christian mirror.

But after being told to enjoy nature for those that can’t, I find myself experiencing all of nature in a different way. How I wish I could bottle the wind and send it to those that never get the chance to feel it. How I wish I could capture the warmth of the sunshine as it flows over creation and hand it to those that never feel its warmth. What I wouldn’t give to pluck a bouquet of wildflowers and share their fragrance and beauty with those that can only dream of what they feel and smell like. Oh, the joy of scooping soft, fluffy, snow up in my bare hands…a joy that would be all the sweeter if I could hand that bit of icy fluff to someone that is denied the pleasure of seeing a snowy day.

And so…

I am learning to enjoy nature in a whole new way because now…

I enjoy nature for those who can’t.