2026 May news-letter article

Aaahh choo!

I hope your head isn’t as full of pollen as mine is!  It’s been a struggle in recent Sundays to have a clear enough voice to speak, but at least my ability to sing bass has never been better!  My Jeep has a coating of yellow on it too, but aren’t we thankful for the beauty of the flowers this spring?  “March winds and April showers bring May flowers” as the old saying goes.  I so love the crisp mornings before it gets too warm for my liking.  Many of you have been praying for rain like I have been, because we have been so dry in recent weeks.  Multiple people in our church family have bee hives, and I hope those amazing little creatures have been busy lately too, because I love good honey!  It is staying lighter, longer (irrespective of “Daylight Saving” Time) also, which makes many of us happy.  It is indeed a beautiful, and in many ways encouraging, time of the year!

As many of you may know already, we hold a weekly Chapel service for the children of our New Life Center.  We sing some songs and we teach the little ones a brief bible lesson.  Since spring began, we have been teaching about the different days of creation, and God’s day of rest, and how Eve was made to be a companion for Adam from Genesis 1 & 2.  It has been a great joy to see the wide-eyed marvel of the little ones when we think about the stars in outer space, and how vast God’s creation is!  We’ve talked about the different kinds of plants, some of which we eat, others of which we get to look at and enjoy their beauty.  We have also talked about the many, many different kinds of animals and how fun they are to study.  All of these aspects of creation are given to human beings as gifts.  We, and only we, are made in the image of God, and He has given dominion over His creation to mankind, and only to mankind.

I have never considered myself a “tree hugger”.  In fact, I usually prefer the comforts of in-door life, but it is a good thing for Christians to behold (and protect) the beauty of God’s creation.  From the stunning colors of spring (yes, even while watching The Masters) to the glory of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the autumn, it does our souls good to slow down and enjoy God’s creation, and it’s many gifts to us.  From the top of Hanging Rock, looking out for miles and miles, to the edge of the sea, where we are reminded of Genesis 1:9, to looking at the night sky, where indeed we are made to feel small, all of us ought to pause regularly and bask in the beauty of God’s creation.  The beauty of creation should remind us of the beauty of its Creator, our Creator.

I am neither smart enough, nor do we have here the time or paper space to unpack what it means to be created in the image of God, but at least one of the ways we reflect God’s image is that we too can be creative.  I asked the little ones what it means “to create”.  One of the young fellows said “like to make something”!  We can make things, and in so doing, we are image-bearers of God.  Aren’t we thankful for men and women that are creative in expressing the performing arts, and those that write the music, and those that fashion the instruments from raw materials?  Isn’t it amazing to watch painters, or potters, or sculptors, or caricature sketch artists capture the beauty of things God created?  Doesn’t it take our breath away to think of folks designing and building a car, or a home, or a sky-scraper, or a computer [that you can put in your pocket].  Whether engineering from Lego bricks, or massive beams of steels, or tiny pixels, we can build, reflecting the image of a Master Builder.  I ponder the greatest minds in laboratories deconstructing molecules in attempts to find cures for cancer, and the fact that God created those molecules in Genesis 1.  We can be creative, because we bear the image of our Creator!

From the barely-touched sections of creation, to the most complex systems of the greatest metropolises, if we slow down enough to consider it, we ought to be left in awe and wonder of our great and mighty Creator.  We ought also cultivate a mentality of stewardship over these things.  We should be faithful stewards of the raw materials of the natural world.  “Reduce, reuse, and recycle” is just a fancy way of telling us to not be wasteful.  As we steward the natural world, we should also be faithful stewards of the knowledge we share.  As we research, and learn more, God has blessed mankind with the understanding of how to better use our resources such that output is maximized.  As modern medicine and technology continue to advance, it is incumbent upon us to make use of these tools in God-honoring ways, promoting the blessing and flourishing of our fellow man.  We practice biblical stewardship, because we want to honor the great Creator who has given these good gifts to us.  He gives us gifts for our good and for His own glory!  Isn’t our Creator beautiful?

When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze,
then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
how great Thou art, how great Thou art!
--A.J.