My Extended Experience

 

Even as I write this, I don't have a clear direction or vision of where this blog is going. In the same way, I had no idea where my extended experience was going to lead me. My plan was to not really have a plan.

I set out in my car without an address in mind. I didn't want to go to a famous landmark or something manmade. I ended up in Leonard, Texas. I didn't know this at the time, but after researching it when I got home, the entire city's population is under 2,000 people. That's not hard to believe if you've ever been there. It is almost nothing but fields and open land.

I was by no means impressed or blown away. Especially in winter, the grass was almost all brown, making the fields look dreary. I think it was actually the fact that it was so unremarkable that made me want to pull over and explore. There was no parking lot... because there was nothing really to see or do, so I pulled over on the side of the road. I got out of my car and started walking. While there weren't many attractions, there was still a fair amount of farm land, so I avoided that and just stuck to the open fields with nothing on it.

There was not much flora or fauna to analyze. The day that I went out there was surprisingly warm, so I was wearing shorts, which fit the weather but was not ideal for walking in knee-high dry grass, which made me itch.

The most "danger" I encountered was that of almost walking face-first into a huge brown spider in a web. I wish I took a picture of it, because I scoured multiple websites after googling "brown spiders in Texas" to figure out what species it was, and I couldn't pinpoint it. 

While I walked, I considered a big question: "Why should we appreciate nature?" I realized that I can only answer for myself, so that's exactly what I sought to do while strolling through the brown and itchy grass.

I should stand in amazement of everything I behold in nature because I believe every single minuscule detail was designed by the same God who created me. Every branch, insect, squirrel, and spider points my minds attention back to the Creator of all things. 

When I am hasty and careless in appreciating nature, I forget to appreciate the God who made it. How can it be that the same God who hung galaxies in the sky designed bacteria and entire ecosystems too small for the human eye to capture? When I see the expansiveness of the fields and the stars in the sky I'm reminded of the grandeur of the God I believe in. I believe he put me on this Earth and every other living being to testify of his goodness.

He is the artist and we, all of nature, are his canvas.

It's breathtaking. That's why I don't see appreciating nature as a chief end but rather a means to an end which is worshipping God. I appreciate nature because it's beautiful and breathtaking, which points to an even more beautiful and breathtaking God.

I know that not everyone believes the same thing I do, but that belief is core to my understanding and perception of nature and the Earth.

It's easy for me to get caught up in self-centeredness, thinking of myself and my responsibilities and desires. Seeing nature is like a neon sign pointing outside of myself, saying "this isn't about you." My life is not about consuming and accumulating as much as I can. It's about loving God and doing so by loving the people he created and placed in our lives.

Breathing in the Texas air in an unremarkable field reminded me of what is true and who I want to be.