Mountains, Water, and "The Great Deliverance"

Lake Junaluska in late August is a beautiful sight to behold.  But honestly, Lake Junaluska at any time is gorgeous!  Scott and I have just returned home from a few days in the mountains of western North Carolina, and the majority of our time was spent enjoying the glories of the natural world.  More than once, I found myself looking out at the Blue Ridge, thinking of Psalm 121:  I lift my eyes to the hills -- from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

There is something healing about lifting eyes towards those ancient mountains and drinking in the smokey haze that hangs low on their peaks, shrouding and then revealing the grey rocks and green trees.  Every day included watching elegant swans glide across the stillness of the water and energetically walking around the lake ourselves, stopping every so often, literally to smell the roses.  We even hiked a little, reveling in the lush shadow cast by the canopy of trees and gasping at the coldness of the spray from the falls.

John Wesley spent a great deal of time much closer to nature than I do.  Riding in all sorts of weather ranging from sultry heat to ice and snow, in relentless downpours of rain and piercing rays of sun, always dependent on a horse for transportation, all while encountering bugs and other animals -- an entire paper has been written on Wesley as an observer of weather.  His mind was always in what I call "theology mode," so it's not surprising that he gave great thought to the created world -- its fleeting glories, its dangers, its abuse at the hands of human beings, and its ultimate restoration at the consummation of history.  In a sermon entitled "The Great Deliverance," he writes:

How true then is that word, “God saw everything that he had made: and behold it was very good!” But how far is this from being the present case! In what a condition is the whole lower world! — to say nothing of inanimate nature, wherein all the elements seem to be out of course, and by turns to fight against man. Since man rebelled against his Maker, in what a state is all animated nature! Well might the Apostle say of this: “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now.”

Often we seem to either forget or at least ignore the glorious promise of newness that belongs not just to us but to all of creation by virtue of the saving grace of Christ.  Salvation, Wesley is quick to remind us, is not simply the forgiveness of humankind's sin but a complete renovation of the cosmos!  New you, new me -- new heavens and new earth! 

Yea, let us habituate ourselves to look forward, beyond this present scene of bondage, to the happy time when they will be delivered therefrom into the liberty of the children of God.

Breathing in the cool air of a higher altitude and bathing my senses in the caress of the breeze, the murmur of locusts, the silent ambling of a skunk, and the ever present interplay of stone, sky, and lake or river -- all of this makes it easy to believe in Eden or better yet, in God's eventual renewal and re-creation.  No wonder so many people call it "God's country!" Oh, for eyes to see everything this way!