The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit.
~Genesis 2:9 NLT
Beauty surrounded them, but they had only one destination in mind. And their hurry led to missing the beauty.
Spring break arrived, and we had made a deal with our daughter. She agreed to let their oldest accompany my wife and me on a school-related trip to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky in July, provided we took two of their other boys somewhere during spring break. Thankfully, she didn’t require us to take the youngest, who was only two. That would have made the trip beyond interesting and taxed Meme and Pop’s grandparenting skills.
After adding our son’s middle son to the mix, we decided on a trip to Asheville, NC—a place we had passed through many times but never stayed. Specifically, we planned to visit one of the chocolate factories and the WNC Nature Center. But having a little time to kill before the nature center opened, we decided to stop by the Botanical Gardens.
I suppose our mistake was not explaining to our two ten-year-olds and one five-year-old what a botanical garden was, nor making them read the signs before we took off down the half-mile gravel trail. The sign that told visitors not to walk anywhere but on established trails.
Being a nature lover and history buff, I wanted to read the small signs that identified the trees and native wildflowers and visit the section containing herbs that Native Americans had used for cooking and medicinal purposes. But the boys flew right by all the beautiful flowers and info plaques. They had one thing on their mind. Well, three. Running, getting to the creek that sliced through the gardens, and skipping rocks across the water’s surface.
The Bible doesn’t name all the varieties of plants and trees God created in the beginning. I would like to think we have more now than then. Regardless, he is the creator of all plant life and the beauty they display. But often, we do what my grandsons did: run right past God’s beautiful world.
COVID-19 forced many outside who don’t typically spend much time there. We couldn’t go much of anywhere else for fear of catching the then-dreaded disease, so we escaped to the great outdoors. Hopefully, the practice of enjoying nature will stick, even though the COVID threat has passed.
God has given us a beautiful world to enjoy and care for. He also assigned us dominion over it. There are many ways we can trash it—and do—but there are equally as many, if not more, ways that we can care for it, and should.
Take time to enjoy the beauty of God’s world. Spend some time marveling at nature. Then, do what you can to preserve its beauty.
Don’t run by what God wants you to witness and praise Him for.
The beauty and diversity in our world amaze me.
WRAL (TV and radio) has a beautiful and large azalea garden outside their studio open to the public. My 4.5 year old grandson and 7 year old granddaughter only want to play hide-and-seek, which is easy as they’re both shorter than the tallest azaleas. My job is not to look at any of the beautiful gardens – that is for others in my party. My job is to try to keep up so we always know where the little ones are.