God is Out There

We are looking for more of God. You’re far more likely to find him in a walk through an orchard or a sit by a pond than you are in a subway terminal. Of course God is with us and for us wherever we are, but in terms of refreshment, renewal, restoration, in terms of finding God in ways we can drink deeply of his wonderful being, you’d do better to look for him in the cry of the gull than the scream of the siren. God inhabits the world he made; his vibrancy permeates all creation:

The whole earth is filled with his glory! (Isaiah 6:3 NLT)

Christ ... ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. (Ephesians 4:9–10 NLT)

In the most beloved of Psalms, perhaps the most beloved of all scripture, David wrote a poem to celebrate the restoration of his soul. Notice that God took him into nature to accomplish that:

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
 he leads me beside quiet waters,
 he refreshes my soul. (Psalm 23:1–3 NIV)

Be careful you don’t dismiss this as something belonging to an agrarian age. God could have taken David into the palace to renew him; he could have taken him into the home of a friend or family member; he could have chosen the bustling markets of Jerusalem. In other words, there were plenty of indoor options for God to employ. But his choice for David’s resuscitation was nature, his greenhouse, filled with his own life, pulsing with his glory, unique in its ability to restore and renew his children.


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