I’m back! My first sabbatical was a wonderful experience. We spent twenty-four days on the road visiting eight national parks. Beauty met us at every turn.
101 feet of circumference of the sequoia General Sherman, the largest tree (by volume) in the world.
356 cubic feet of water plunging off the precipice of Yosemite Falls every second.
The drenching mist of Vernal Falls.
Grey sand beaches at Redwood National Park flanked by the blue-green ocean and the lush green forest.
The crystalline waters of Crater Lake.
The otherworldly rainbow-colored gurgling mud pots at Yellowstone.
The black bear asleep twenty feet up in a pine tree.
The pristine high-altitude lakes at Grand Tetons and Rocky Mountain National Park that reflect super-sized cotton ball cumulus clouds.
The arid Great Sand Dunes abutting the verdant Sangre Cristo mountains.
Many have asked what I learned on sabbatical. I’m not sure I can fully answer that question (yet). But I’ve experienced truths about who I know God is more deeply: his grandeur, his bigness, his beauty.
The book of Job is surprisingly attuned to God’s creation. In the final chapters of Job, God avoids answering the question of “why” and instead, at length, describes several animals. Early, in response to his comforters, Job has the same intuition and asks them to look to nature to find their arrogance blunted. He says,
But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:7-10)
When we stand in creation, we are struck with awe by God’s glory in creation. We can imagine David laying in his father’s pasture under the stars listening to his sheep lowing as he says in wonder, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hand” (Ps. 19:1). Creation cries out about the existence of its Creator.
Christians have long held that God reveals himself through two books: his Word and his creation. Fourth century preacher, John Chrysostom declared that God reveals himself even to the illiterate through the works of his hands, “Upon this volume the unlearned, as well as the wise man, shall be able to look, and wherever any one may chance to come, there looking upwards towards the heavens, he will receive a sufficient lesson from the view of them.”[i]
What have I learned this sabbatical? It’s tricky to articulate. In John Chrysostom’s understated language: it has been a sufficient lesson. My heart is full of wonder and worship.
[i] John Chrysostom, Homilies to the people of Antioch, Homily IX. 5.
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