Stars, Rivers, and Faith

North Fork of the French Broad River near Balsam Grove, photo by Duane McCullough

But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;
he can turn the darkness into morning
and daylight into night.
He summons the water of the seas
and pours it out on the earth’s surface.
The Lord is his name!

         -Amos 5:8 

For me, the seamless artistry and beauty of the natural world is one of the strongest evidences of God.

The Lord is ever overseeing the ebb and flow of the seasons and natural cycles. How do rivers begin in obscurity yet tirelessly gather and flow to the seas? It seems effortless. In
contrast, our own efforts at artificial rivers seem forced and require much mechanical engineering and human maintenance.

Studying the French Broad River with the children has given me a greater appreciation for rivers.  Why does the French Broad flow across the Eastern Continental Divide?  How does a river emerge and chart its course?  The slope of the land is the largest determiner of a river's direction and course, but there are many others as well.  Even all of the factors in bulk cannot explain the mystery of my spirit being soothed by water.  Why do we have such an emotional response to a river or to the ocean's confidence and force?  There is rest in the flux and broader constancy. 

The orbit of our earth and the tilt of the planet during different seasons also prompt us to ponder the boundless designs and timing of God.  Our spirits are encouraged as light and life increase each spring.  Later, we welcome our need to herd and gather inward again as the air turns cooler.   The Lord is a Master of context, of wedding what we call "science" with the seemingly opposite world of what we call "art."  The two are actually interwoven, as the new agers would put it--the trunk and the tail of the same elephant.

When my spirit is fickle and my faith is muddy, there is still always the voice of God declaring Himself through the natural world. I may doubt miracles, sickness, and His outer-workings in my life and the lives of those around me, but there is something instinctively and undoubtedly right and true about the natural environment and the wedding of the different liberal and scientific arts behind it all.  I don't have to argue a river---it's a theological masterpiece, incessantly declaring its Creator.