Nature And Worship Series

In our 5,536 mile trip to Santa Clara and back, we saw the incredible handiwork of God

like we never saw it before. The Grand Canyon was so awesome and scary to me with my fear

of heights. All of my pictures have the railing in them because I could not get close enough to

lean over it. We saw the beauty of the mountains and forests around Lake Tahoe that make it

such a popular place. We saw the painted desert and the petrified forests, and the great

variety of flowers and palm trees of California plus the vast fields of grapes. We saw the

wonders of mans creativity also in the most unusual city we have ever seen-Santa Fe, New

Mexico. We saw there the oldest house and church in the USA.

Everywhere we went there were masses of other people trying to see what they have never

seen before. That is what traveling is all about, and that is why tourist traps are so prevalent.

People want to see something. When we got back we took our grandchildren to the science

museum in St. Paul, and it was a mad house as multiplied hundreds of people pushed their

way passed each other to see the man made dinosaurs. People long to see the unique and the

spectacular. This is what motivates people to travel and go to new places. In Glendale,

California people were even flocking to Forest Lawn Cemetery to see the wonder of the

Lord's Supper in living color, as well as a host of other examples of great art and sculpture.

Eyes are made for seeing, and man has a perpetual desire to see. It is his adventure; his

entertainment, and his education.

According to Bernard Shaw, seeing God's handiwork was of the very essence of life to

Joan of Arc. When her judges sentenced her to perpetual imprisonment she responds, "Send

me to the stake rather than that. To shut me from the light of the sky and the sight of fields

and flowers; to chain my feet so that I can never again climb the hills-this is worse the furnace

7 times heated. Without these things I cannot live; and by your wanting to take them from

me, I know that your counsel is of the devil, and that mine if of God." Her conviction was

that God wanted her to see His creation. Seeing is the daily bread of the eyes. God made thee

yes, and He expects us to use them to see what He has made. He even gives us glimpses into

what we will see when we leave this world of wonders to enter the world of His presence and

even greater wonders.

If prizes were given out for the greatest seer of unique and unusual things, the Apostle

John would take first prize. Paul was caught up into heaven also, but he does not tell us what

he saw, but John does. He was given the greatest vision of God's throne, and all that

surrounds it, of any person who has ever lived. He saw awesome things that makes all other

visions trivial by comparison. The thing that caught my attention about John's fabulous

vision of heaven is that the key theme of Rev. 4 is the Creator and His creation. In other

words, John's trip to heaven was much like the trips we take on earth to see the handiwork of

God. He saw from the heavenly perspective, but the dominate theme of this chapter is the

seeing of nature and its worship of God as its Creator.

This heavenly vision is amazingly worldly. Look at the worldly symbols:

1. The rainbow around the throne.

2. The glassy sea.

3. The four living creatures with faces of lion, ox, man, and eagle.

It almost sounds like John is in a celestial zoo. The scene around God is so nature

oriented, and the songs of 24 elders who represent all of God's people for all time is not a

song about redemption, but about nature and God as the Creator of all things. There is no

escaping the primary message of this first vision of John. God wants to be worshiped as

Creator. God is proud of His roll, and He has made the wonders of the world. All that we see

that amazes us is His doing, and He expects us to praise Him for His wisdom, power, and

cleverness in making what He has made. If God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, then

God's people will be a people who, like the saints in heaven, honor and glorify God as

Creator.

A woman who has sewn or knitted, or crochet a thing of beauty is delighted when you

acknowledge that it is worthy of praise. People who make things of beauty enjoy their works