The Lilies of the Field

In my very first post in the My Search for Creation blog, I pointed out that among the many reasons for starting the blog was to showcase the beauty of Creation.  I have been a nature nerd for a long time.  I remember as a kid going bird watching with my dad in a woods near our house.  I remember catching butterflies and grasshoppers.  The grasshoppers I would put in a coffee can (remember those, tin cans with opaque plastic lids).  I enjoyed the thumping sound they made against the lid of the can.  Of course, I always prepared for them a nice bed of grass.  Not sure if they ever ate any of it.

In college I began collecting wildflowers, seeds, and plant samples, pressing them in books or whatever I had handy.  Pretty soon I was building my own plant presses.  I now have three huge rubbermaid tubs that hold about two thousand pressed specimens, waiting for us to move into a house that will be big enough for an herbarium cabinet.

While I enjoy all plants, I do have some favorites.  Among them are Columbine and the Lily and Orchid families.  Lilies were among Jesus' favorites as well.  In Matthew 6:28-29, Jesus said,

28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

So, I figured today would be a great day to show-off some of my favorite lilies.  Enjoy this beautiful walk through the Lily Family!  Can't wait until April for these guys to start blooming again!  :)

Michigan Lily

Stinking Benjamin



Nodding Trillium



Yellow Trout Lily

Toadshade Trillium

A Call to Love One Another

Sometimes God puts odd messages upon one's heart.  It is 1 AM on Christmas morning and I cannot sleep.  I don't think it is about anxiety over opening presents here in a few short hours.  I got beyond that a few years back.  Truthfully, I don't know why I can't sleep.  But the above photo is what I woke up with upon my mind.

Above is a female Blue Dasher eating a Desert Firetail.  I took this photo at Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona several years ago, back in the day when I was first learning about dragonflies.  Something that recently came to my attention is that initially, in Creation, all God's creatures, including humans, were vegetarians.  " And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food. And it was so." - Genesis 1:30.

And then man fell out of favor with God, due to his inability to follow directions.  We just had to eat from the one plant that we were not supposed to eat from.  Of course, God gives us freewill, which means we have the choice to not follow directions.  After the big screw-up, the game plan changed, and carnivorous behavior began.  While the Bible does not directly state when carnivorous behavior began for animals (and some plants!), or at least not that I have found yet, for humans, carnivorous behavior began following The Great Flood of Noah fame.

I do not think God's original intent was the harsh world we have today.  Creation was paradise; death did not exist.  But then man got smart!  By eating of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, man acquired the knowledge to do stupid things and make a mess of the world.

Currently in America, this great knowledge of good and evil has transformed into a battle over guns.  Recently, twenty children were shot in their school in Connecticut.  We all agree this was a terrible act.  We disagree how to fix it.  I recently heard Richard Land, a top administrator in the Southern Baptist Convention declare that the way to handle the awfulness that America has become is by arming everybody.  Land's spiritual logic was that the best way to show love to your neighbor is to shoot a bad guy that is trying to harm your neighbor.  Only by everybody holstering a side arm on their hip can we truly feel safe!

Many of us will be coming together today to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I think Richard Land's Jesus must be different from mine.  I look at how Jesus handled situations when His neighbor was being threatened.  Lets consider the woman who was being accused of adultery.  The punishment for adultery in that day was stoning.  As the crowd gathered, intent to stone this woman, did Jesus gather up rocks and start chucking them at the crowd which had gathered, in an attempt to protect the woman from harm?  No.  Instead He responded in John 8:7, "When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.'”  Jesus actually granted permission to anybody who was without sin to throw the first rock.  Jesus' response in this case was the exact opposite of Richard Land's.

America finds itself at a crossroad, not because we have taken God out of our schools, but rather because we have taken Jesus out of hearts.  Christians have forgotten how to Love.  Don't get me wrong, I have some Christian friends who have Love down to a science.  But I think many Christians have gotten caught up in a mentality that is spreading across our nation of "every man for himself", much like the photograph I opened this morning's blog with. 

With this in mind, I want to close this episode of My Search for Creation with a different photo.  I'll apologize in advance for the blurriness of the shot, but I think it is a better portrayal of what living in Christ is about.  It is a photo of two Spangled Skimmers sharing the same branch in peace and harmony.  The Jesus I know, who was born this day in Bethlehem, would be much more approving of this shot.  My prayer as I try to go back to sleep, now at 2:30AM, is that we can all, including myself, live with a greater sense of peace, Love, and harmony.

Creation by Design

When I look at nature, I do not see randomness or coincidence.  I see purpose and design.  Pictured above is the Chihuahua Toad Lubber, assuming you can find it.  This degree of camoflouge has to be by design.  Isn't it remarkable how this grasshopper is the exact size, shape, and color of the rocks he is sitting among!  I find this so amazing.

Another example of Creation by Design can be found in orchids.  Below is the Pink Lady Slipper.  Many orchids require a certain type of insect in order to be successfully pollinated.  Not any insect will do, but rather it has to be just the right shape, size, and species. 

Creation is loaded with purpose and design.  Seeds that must go through animal stomachs before they can germinate.  Other seeds that will not germinate unless in the pressence of a certain fungus.  Dragonflies that will live only in slow moving streams or shallow lakes.  The more I learn about Creation, the more I see the connections.  I hope you will take the opporunity to look for the connections as well!

Beauty of Creation!

Not any sort of big lesson for today.  Just enjoying the beauty of Creation!  All of these can be found in Ohio in early May.  These in particular were found in southern Fairfield County, Ohio.

Squawroot

Columbine

Blue-eyed Mary

Stewardship

While I mentioned in a previous post about God's assignment to Adam to name all of the animals, the very first assignment Adam was given was to view Creation with a sense of stewardship.  "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." (Genesis 2:15)  God's instruction was to work the land and take care of it (stewardship).

My impression is that when many believers hear the word "stewardship", they think of financial issues.  Absolutely, money is one of those gifts that God blesses us with.  But stewardship applies beyond finances.  God has also blessed us with an Earthly home, and it requires stewardship as well.  However, it is hard to take care of Creation if you do not know what is in it, just as it is hard to be a good steward of money if you never check the account balance.

This is why it is so important to notice the Creation that surrounds us in our homes and communities.  Frequently we have beautiful and incredible things right outside our door, if only we took the opportunity to look. 

Below is a picture of a mating pair of Orange Bluets.  I took the photo at North Shields Pond in Ft. Collins, Colorado.  I just recently learned that this photo is documentation of a new county record for Larimer County, Colorado.  Nobody had ever reported an Orange Bluet from that county before.  While it is kind of cool to have my name attached with such a thing, I think the bigger statement is that there was something new and exciting hanging out in the North Shields Pond, just waiting for somebody to notice.  What exciting things are waiting to be noticed just outside your back door!?

Finding God in the Strangest Places

This is a picture of Haploa clymene, also known as the Clymene Moth.  This bug is a frequent visitor to porch lights in the eastern United States.  When I initially looked at the design on this moths wings, I saw a superficial representation of the logo of the New Orleans Saints football team!  I'm a guy who is a big football fan, what can I say!

However, facebook friend of mine, Daniel Post, the first time he saw a picture of this bug he saw an angel.  Do you see an angel?  Let me turn the moth upside down.

Now do you see the angel in the middle of the moth?  Thanks to Daniel, I now see an angel when I see this moth.  Yet another great example of God's fingerprints all over Creation.  Sometimes we just have to get out and look.  With this blog I want to challenge people to get out and look.  There are so many cool and wonderful things out there!

Whats In a Name?

I love dragonflies and damselflies.  I also love the names they have been given.  Damselflies especially sport some rather risque and creative names, which makes looking for them all the more fun.  One of the very first jobs that was given to man by God was to name all of the creatures God had created.  In Genesis 2:19-20, "Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. . . ."

One of my favorite damselflies is the Painted Damsel.  The beautiful array of colors I find breath taking.  While I am a big wildflower nerd as well, I think some of the most remarkable colors in Creation can be found on dragon- and damselflies.  The photo below was taken along the Santa Cruz River in extreme southern Arizona, not far from the Mexican border.

One of my favorite damselfly names belongs to the Springwater Dancer.  When I hear this name my imagination conjures up an image of a woman, clothed in animal skins, dancing out on a distant grassy plain, celebrating the arrival of spring.  Below is a Springwater Dancer sitting on a rock at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, AZ.

Jesus has been given lots of names as well.  A poster in my home lists the many names of Jesus, 53 in total.  Among them are Prince of Peace, Immanuel, and Rose of Sharon.  The many names of Jesus can help remind us of His power and His love for us.  We can find comfort in the Prince of Peace and strength in the Rock of Our Salvation!

Frequently we underestimate the power of a name.  We can use names to be hurtful, or to encourage, or even to entertain and make us smile.  Think about the names that you use.  Do you use them in a spirit of love?  Remember, there is a lot in a name!

Introducing My Search for Creation

Folks who know me know that I am a nature nerd, perhaps to the extreme.  I have been watching wildflowers, butterflies, dragonflies, trees, and mushrooms for most of my adult life.  I have always viewed my interests in nature as God-given, something that the good Lord hard-wired into me.  But something a friend of mine mentioned a few weeks back really got me thinking.

Pete Spino has been a friend of mine for six or seven years.  He is a minister in the Catholic Church.  Our friendship initially revolved around butterfly interests, but recently has spread to more spiritual matters as well.  One day a few weeks back Pete commented to me that he saw my nature interests as a ministry so-to-speak.  While I had always thought very strongly that God had placed these nature interests within me, I had never really thought of it as a 'ministry' until Pete mentioned it.

Sometimes my nature interests have met with great frustration.  In 2011, I conducted my Big Butterfly Year, a project that I thought a lot of my butterfly friends and acquaintances would take great interest in.  They didn't.  I wrote Butterfly Rider to document a year's worth of adventures and butterfly sightings, once again thinking it would land on every butterfly enthusiast's book shelf, much like Bob Pyle's The Mariposa Road.  It didn't.  Pete's comment in passing got me thinking.  Perhaps I have not been directing my interests to the right crowd.  Maybe there is a group of people who would be more interested in the ramblings of a nature nerd other than the obvious audience.

With Pete's encouragement, and more importantly, I think God's encouragement, I have decided to direct my nature adventures toward my Christian brothers and sisters.  Seems to me that 'Christian' and 'nature nerd' are terms that rarely go together.  Its almost as if there is a verse in the Bible that discourages believers from being environmentalists, or nature enthusiasts.  But I have yet to find that verse.  One verse I have found is this, Philipians 4:8 -

 "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."

I cannot think of anything more true, pure, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy than Creation!  Even after God finished creating He looked back at it and "it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)

My hope is that friends and strangers alike will read this blog and choose to pay more attention to the beauty and wonder that God has made.  There is so much variety, color, purpose, and design in Creation, just waiting to be noticed.  I hope that through the stories and photos I post on this blog, that people will be encouraged to notice.  I hope to add to it once every week or two.

Please share this blog with your Christian (and non-Christian) friends.  I am confident that ALL will be blessed!  I am also planning to re-write Butterfly Rider (to a degree), to give it a different focus.  My hope is that the new Butterfly Rider will encourage believers and non-believers, homeschoolers, etc to be excited about participating in citizen science and nature observation.