The Beauty of Creation

“It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”

Lamentations 3:26

By Isabella Heigley

Sweet Silence

In today’s culture, we are surrounded by the loud bustle of everyday life. Filled with a false urgency to complete the day’s task, we mindlessly hurry through our daily routine; yet, when we do find some time to slow down, we fill our moments of peace with noise. No one sits through a ride in the car without listening to their favorite music, podcast, or audiobook. At mealtimes our society sits in front of a screen to enjoy the newest shows or movies. We hear music playing constantly in grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, and even public bathrooms. The silence is simply lost. Many people today even find silence unsettling. Left with nothing but our thoughts, we seek to urge noise into the scarce silence that we do find.

One of my favorite attributes of my Father’s Creation is the silence. Not the silence that is found in a empty room, but the silence of Creation that quietly echoes a sweeter tune. Silence that is not deafening, but peaceful. It’s the kind of silence found on an evening walk as the sun sets softly on the horizon. The silence found down a road no one knows of where there is no whirr of man’s daily bustle. Personally, I find this silence within solitude in my Father’s Creation. Often, I enjoy a peaceful walk in the woods or a quiet spot on the edge of a field on a horseback ride. Any place where I can be alone in nature, I enjoy the creativeness of the Lord.

As I watch the clouds shift on the vast expanse above, I wonder if He has ever painted same sky twice; or if each day he uses it as a canvas to display his power and intentionality? I hear the birds quietly chirping in the woods, perhaps even loudly singing a song of praise to their Creator, and I’m reminded of how my heavenly Father cares for them. They neither sow nor reap, yet they thrive by the sustaining hand of the Lord. Oh, how much more will He care for me? The entirety of Creation runs on the power of the Lord, and they do it so quietly. The trees incapable of assembling words never have been able to cry out to God. The grass goes from day to day full of life and color but has never once called on the Lord to sustain it. The horse runs through her field completely unafraid of the season’s change as her Creator causes her hair to grow to prepare for the colder months ahead. How much more does He prepare me for changes in life that I remain completely unaware of?

One of my favorite hymns is “This is My Father’s World.” The second verse perfectly depicts the beautiful silence of Creation:

“This is my Father's world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world:
He shines in all that's fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.”

As I hear Him pass in this sweet silence, I close my eyes and thank my God for His presence in the quietness of Creation. Perhaps Creation longs to have the words to cry out, but this joy is mine. The joy of thanking the Lord for His intentionality in creation, thanking Him for friends who share in this silence, thanking Him for His sustaining hand in my life, and thanking Him most of all for His sacrificial atonement He made for me. I see the way the Lord cares for His Creation, and how quietly they praise Him for it. I want to worship with that kind of meekness all the days of my life too.

Lord, teach me to sit quietly as I hope and wait for the salvation of the LORD.

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