C.S. Lewis writes about how our experience with the creation awakens within us a sense that there is more  –  something other, something beyond the natural world. He says in Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”.

Lewis observes in his book Miracles that we can only savor this world for the wonder that it really is when we appreciate it as the creation of a supernatural God. “Only Super-naturalists really see Nature… To treat Nature itself as God, or as Everything, is to lose the whole pith and pleasure of her. Come out, look back and then you will see… this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas; this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, canaries, fleas, gases, tornadoes, and toads. How could you have ever thought this was ultimate reality?... The “vanity” (futility) to which Nature is subjected is her disease not her essence.”

Like all of us, nature, though wondrous and awesome, is in need of redemption. The “essence” of nature points us to her awesome Maker. As the Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God”, and we understand “His eternal power and Godhead” through “the things that are made” (Romans 1:20). Spiritual revelation from creation can be very powerful, moving us in wonder and awe, even to tears. But the “disease”, as Lewis puts it, within nature – the futility, corruption, and harsh cruelty that exists in the creation – instructs us to desire, in fact, to “anxiously long for”, our full redemption. Ultimate reality is even more perfect, much more perfect, than any day of phenomenal beauty and appreciation of the most glorious scene and feelings on earth. The ultimate reality is the truly Perfect! – and thus the truly Beautiful!

As the Bible also puts it, “…the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory (great beauty and splendor) which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature (the anxious longing of the creation) waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now” (Romans 8:18,19,22).

In our journeys to Christ, we feel both the essence of Almighty God in creation, as well as the corruption within it that requires redemption. And though we may live a life of unusual successes or failures, all who come to Christ and walk the pilgrims’ path go through some degree of this great realization.

• Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments

Check out more from Creation Moments @creationmoments.com/