This post is part of a series where I’m sharing some of my reflections from my senior project, for which I spent three full days in solitude at Lake Hiwassee, NC. For a fuller explanation, see the introductory post.

On the first full day of my project, I went down to the lake for a couple hours. It was beautiful. The rain from the day before had totally gone away; it was bright and sunny. I read Psalm 19 (“The heavens declare the glory of God, and skies above proclaim his his handiwork…”), realizing that I could just as easily substitute “lake” and “waters”.

Solitude is an amazing thing. I could just lie there on the dock, letting the sunshine wash over me and listening to the birds singing all around; I could feel the gentle rocking of the waters as the dock tilted ever so slightly with each passing wave; I could perceive, as it were, the very touch of God in each breath of wind. Nature is not God, but it is certainly divine. Nature is not God, but God is truly in nature. Nature is not God, but it reveals his face in a thousand colors and his voice in a thousand sounds.

In The Powers That Be, the theologian Walter Wink writes of the “integral view of reality” that “sees everything as having an inner and an outer aspect”. Everything in the universe has a spiritual dimension: “Heaven and Earth are seen here as the inner and outer aspects of a single reality. This integral worldview affirms spirit at the core of every created thing. But this inner spiritual reality is inextricably related to an outward form or physical manifestation.”

I thought of this passage (Wink’s book is one of my favorites) when I was on the dock. Indeed, the spiritual was all around me. Spirit is indeed “at the core of every created thing” – but in nature, surrounded by green and blue and song and light, that core isn’t nearly so far away. This is as it should be, if the words of John 1 are true: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of people. … And the Word became flesh (stuff, matter, living, natural!) and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” The Incarnation demonstrates the presence of God in the physical universe, a universe that is itself an expression of divine thought/language (logos, the Word).

Note: This series will be posted intermittently, and will continue on Monday.

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