We should often contemplate the Great Jehovah. Not only was he the creator of this earth (after which the Father proclaimed it to be good!), but we should also contemplate His great artistic talent and decorative skills. We need to give Him credit, as well as our thanks, for decorating the earth the way that He did. How do we pin a First Place Ribbon on His masterpiece?
Think for a moment and realize that every famous landscape artist who has ever painted a picture, whether by watercolor or oil, has merely tried to capture the earth’s beauty as he tries to copy the master. “Besides God’s handiwork, does not man’s fade into insignificance?” (Mohandas Gandhi)
Many modern homes are built with large windows. In some cases they take up nearly the whole wall. These windows are called ‘picture windows,’ deriving their name from the actual and beautiful outside landscapes that they frame.
Every autumn, as the leaves turn from bright green to their spectacular red, yellow, orange and brown colors, the thought comes to my mind that the earth is being decorated for our pleasure. The sounds of Autumn add to its joy as well. For example, one can walk through the leaves and listen to their crisp and crunchy sounds, the sounds of Autumn.
Then Winter comes and earth is blanketed with a fluffy white snow, and ice covers the trees with a beautiful coat of glass. The leaves are gone, and the trees, from trunk to branch, or limbs to the intricate twigs on the outer branches, may be covered with ice, sparkling from the street lights or passing cars. It’s almost as if millions of beautiful gems were perfectly placed along the limbs to dazzle a passerby. Then as the sun rises in the morning and casts its brightness on the snow and ice covered terrain the beauty and the brightness are almost too much for the human eye to absorb.
Winter luster starts to fade and then dies. Spring follows winter’s death when the sun moves south and its warm and cleansing rains wash away the declining, fading winter decor. Grass, flowers, and other plant shoots start pushing their way through the ground, again decorating the earth with a beautiful, variable, and delicate coat of green, a coat that is very different from both the autumn and the winter. Heavenly Father knows that we, like He, enjoy variety. Varying shades of green start popping out on the trees and flowers start decorating the landscape with splashes of color. The varying sizes, colors and shapes of trees and bushes all come to life once again. I love what Helen Keller said, for she was one, who being both deaf and blind, could appreciate the earth’s beauty through another’s eyes. “If we believe that the earth is ours, and that the sun and moon hang in the sky for our delight, there will be joy upon the hills and gladness in the fields because the Artist in our souls glorifies creation.”(published in Personality, December, 1927)
The spring ushers in the resurrection of life on earth; it was dead but now it lives. It is a symbolic reminder to all of God’s children of the resurrection of His Son and ultimately the resurrection of all mankind from death’s slumber. For He was the first fruits of the resurrection, and the beauty of the spring is a celebration of that event of nearly two thousand years ago.
The spring also represents a rebirth, a newness of life. As new life begins to mature, spring becomes a young summer. The season when the earth is warm and most productive and designed as that part of the Father’s plan that provides sustenance for all of His offspring. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and since then beautiful photographs have been taken of space. Michael Hanlon, a reporter from the Daily Mail, after viewing photos of space remarked that the photos; “Illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.” Another, looking at the photos said; “I must agree, and add that each one seems to contain the fingerprints of God…what an incredible artist He is!” The end of the summer and the beginning of autumn is the harvest season; the time of gathering and feasting, the time for giving thanks for the Lord’s bounty, a time when we can see the great love he has for us by His life sustaining and abundant harvest. Not only should we recognize Him for his artistic and decorative skills but for His great love, for us, His children. He knew this earthly experience was sometimes going to be dark and gloomy for us and so, I believe, He sprinkled our lives with beauty. The hymn, ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ should be sung frequently as a reminder and then a sincere prayer of thanks should be offered to the Great Decorator, the Almighty Jehovah.