As I’m writing this the season has changed. We’ve had a hot and dry summer here in the hills of Tennessee, but after a long wait, no more! Within a matter of weeks everything has changed. All of the greens of the oaks, walnuts, dogwoods, maples, redbuds, and more are fading or gone. Replaced by shades from the palette of fall. The yellows, the oranges, the reds. All striking and beautiful. Enough to grab anyone’s attention if even for a moment. Then there is the movement of a fall breeze that makes the range of colors sway and dance, bringing with it cooler weather. Change is coming! It’s happening now! What a beautiful change it is and orchestrated on such a massive scale! 
When I step out my door there is so much happening outside! Not a word spoken, and yet so much is said. On some days there are too many interactions to count. The ongoing chatter between flora and fauna can take on the dull roar of a large convention, and yet no emails were needed. No memos had to be sent. No schedules needed to be plotted and planned. No agendas needed to be turned to strategy, and no policies had to be written to continue the work of God’s creative hand.
What a gift we have when we take the time to see! When we slow down to observe. Kind of like a spectator. . . just sit and enjoy.
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Actually, we spectate nature a lot. For some, the main way we engage the natural world is through entertainment. Nature is the place we go to escape or recharge the batteries. But, I’ve come to realize that our role is not to be in “the stands,” and this is anything but a spectator sport! The truth is, we greatly affect the environment we occupy. So, while we might think we are just observers from the stands, some of us choose to take to the field and take action! The truth of the matter is we are all involved. We are all contributing. We are all playing a part. The question we all need to ask ourselves is what position am I playing?
 
Always take time to contemplate the seasons.
 
What role am I playing? Where do I fit in the world around me? Honestly, once we start asking these questions and we start looking at our world through the lens of creation care what we find can be quite alarming. The problems we see can run very deep, the realizations quite scary, and the burdens we start to carry can become quite heavy. It is important to take heart, bring your courage, and most importantly don’t tread alone! Jesus sent the disciples out in twos. The God who calls is redeeming, reconciling, and healing. He shapes and equips those that accept the call. We are redeemed. We are called to reconciling work, and we can help heal too.
 
Slow down.
Take a moment.
Always take time to contemplate the seasons.
 
I’m recalling one of the first books that grabbed my attention, Silent Spring. Rachel Carson was a marine biologist working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She was passionate about what she did. She had a lot going against her though. She worked in a male dominated field through a time that prized nuclear science. Despite this, her passion and attention to the “wonders and realities of the universe about us” (Intro XIX), brought about major change and launched the beginning of the environmental movement. She wrote:

“We need a more high-minded orientation and a deeper insight, which I miss in many researchers. Life is a miracle beyond our comprehension, and we should reverence it even where we have to struggle against it. . . . The resort to weapons such as insecticides to control it is proof of insufficient knowledge and of an incapacity so to guide the processes of nature that brute force becomes unnecessary. Humbleness is in order.”[1]

This book was written over 60 years ago. Her findings and concerns hit everything directly on the nose, but yet much of what she spoke for is under major threat today.

Life truly is “a miracle beyond our comprehension.” We forget that most of our modern conveniences and current lifestyles come from this miracle. We have learned and continue to learn so much from the natural world. Nature is the original, living artwork with God’s name scribbled in the corner. We take instead of revere. We extract instead of appreciate, protect, and participate in this miraculous thing. When we finally pause to take a pulse, we may find that many of our relationships with the environment are parasitic rather than synergistic. (Chainsaws have been echoing through the woods for the past several days as I write this.)
Much of the original stories, images, and even some of the parables in Scripture are agricultural. The natural world is such an integral part of our story. It seems that the life of the Church should have a very natural and dirt-related component to it. How many of our churches have this lens? We use images of a tree, the mountains, and the sea. How many of us know the details of these things in our world? Sometimes there appears to be a great divide between the kingdom work of the Creator and the work of creation. Our work as the Church of proclaiming Christ and saving lives does not always seek to also save the land where we live. But what if our salvation is both intertwined with spirit and earth?  We are called to both parts of a holistic gospel. 

What if, waste and destruction of the natural order was as noticeable to us as a cell phone ringing during corporate prayer?
Everyone notices it. Likewise, when God’s good creation is abused, it should be an alarm going off for the people of God!
In that moment we are doing one of the most important things in our lives, worshipping as a community and connecting with God. That time and space is important, holy, and sacred. The same is true when we step outside of our congregations on Sunday into the world. We move from one sanctuary into another. The sanctuary of the natural world. God created that too.
 
Remove what doesn’t belong. Cease what doesn’t need to continue.
Take the time to look at your world around you.
 
If we would just look and listen, there is a call to worship. There is a call to wholly living that whispers to all of us. It is a call out of destructive habits and into a daily lifestyle that sustains and gives abundantly. 
Take the time to look at your seasons. What has happened before? What is going on now? What is coming next? The work of this season lays the foundation for the next season. We need to reflect on the past, be aware of the now, and work towards the approaching season to come. It is fall now. That means winter will soon be here. Spring will be coming again. . . Life, death, and new life!
I pray the veil is removed for each of us in intimate ways, and for all of us systemically.
 
Always take time to contemplate the seasons.
However long, however brief.
Take time to contemplate the seasons.
Pause the busy.
Take just a moment to look around.
Go and sit in the midst of God’s creative hand.
Always take time to contemplate the seasons.
 
​- JT Blue is a happy father of 3 and husband, having 10+ years with a Pastoral degree
from Trevecca Nazarene University. He currently works part-time while
pursuing ordination and giving all his spare time to the Church, community, and
growing hobby farm at home.

[1] Carson, Rachel. “Silent Spring” p. 275