Experiencing God in Nature

St. Bonaventure, who lived in the 13th century, taught the bottom-up approach to loving God, by inviting us to start with loving the visible and simple things, and then move up from there.

“Let us place our first step in the ascent at the bottom, presenting to ourselves the whole material world as a mirror, through which we may pass over to God, the Supreme Craftsman,” he wrote. Furthermore,

“The Creator’s supreme power, wisdom and benevolence shine forth in created things.”

Father Richard Rohr, who embraces an incarnational mysticism, encourages us to apply this spiritual insight of ascending from the visible creation to the invisible God, literally.

“Don’t start by trying to love God, or even people. Love rocks and elements first, move to trees, then animals, and then humans. It works. In fact, it might be the only way to love, because how you do anything is how you do everything.”

He continues: “Our job as conscious humans is to awaken early to this innate beauty and goodness in all of creation. Why wait until heaven when we can enjoy the Divine Flow in all of nature now?”

Father Rohr is recapturing and emphasizing what our indigenous ancestors always knew and practiced. See how a Lakota Indian Lame Deer calls the attention of a visitor to his cooking pot, taken from Lame Deer Seeker of Visions:

“It doesn’t seem to have a message, that old pot, and I guess you don’t give it a thought…But I’m an Indian. I think about ordinary, common things like this pot. The bubbling water comes from the rain cloud. It represents the sky. The fire comes from the sun which warms us all — men, animals, trees. The meat stands for the four-legged creatures, our animal brothers, who gave themselves so that we should live. The stream is a living breath. It was water; now it goes up to the sky, becoming a cloud again. These are sacred…We Sioux spend a lot of time thinking about everyday things…We see in the world around us many symbols that teach us the meaning of life. We have a saying that the white man sees so little, he must see with only one eye. We see a lot that you no longer notice. You could notice if you want to, but you are usually too busy. We Indians live in a world of symbols and images where the spiritual and the commonplace are one.”

Howard Thurman, a contemplative who experienced the unity of God’s presence through nature, reflected:

“The earth beneath my feet is the great womb out of which the life upon which my body depends comes in utter abundance. There is at work in the soil a mystery by which the death of one seed is reborn a thousandfold in newness of life. The magic of wind, sun and rain creates a climate that nourishes every living thing. It is law, and more than law; it is order, and more than order — there is a brooding tenderness out of which it all comes. In the contemplation of the earth, I know that I am surrounded by the love of God.”

Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh invites us to engage in ordinary, daily living with a miracle mindset.

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. I think the real miracle is not walking on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”

He is echoing the thoughts of Einstein who said: “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”