I am an artist and have often walked across a landscape and gasped in amazement at the beauty and wonder of God’s creation displayed in the natural world. When I look at the way humans are designed, their abilities, their creative imagination and potential I also see the wonder of God at work. However if we stop for a moment and compare nature with humanity we see interesting differences.
Nature – If left alone it is self sustaining and able to manage its own development: nature has an amazing ability to look after itself without the need of help – even when an animal kills another for food, there is no evil intent, it is simply an act to enable nature to be maintained – the natural world is one of the most important symbols of God’s sustaining power.
Humanity – Human beings seem unable to live in peace and harmony with each other. Through wars, violence, poverty, greed and other sins, humanity has caused much disharmony and damage to the natural world.
So what can we learn from these differences?
We see that God’s original plan for humanity changed direction when sin entered the world. Humanity is now a mix of good and bad and none of us are perfect! We need to be restored to a correct relationship with God, each other and nature – we desperately need God’s help.
