This year we enjoyed a dry and sunny summer and there have already been many beautiful autumn days. The beauty of autumn is stunning as the leaves change colour to reds, yellows, oranges and browns and the low sun brings out the depth of their colours. The early morning mists clothe the world in a gentle mantle of beauty. Autumn is one stage in the annual cycle of this beautiful planet on which we live. Earth is a tiny speck in a massive universe, but is uniquely beautiful.
Many of us today live in urban areas where the beauty of creation is not so easy to see. We are surrounded by buildings and roads, traffic and noise. Life is busy and hectic. One of the blessings of some big cities, like London, is the lovely parks to which office workers can escape for a few minutes at lunch time and mothers can take their children to play. The parks are oases of peace and beauty amid the concrete jungles men have created. Parks and fields and hills and streams remind us of God and wherever we live it is important to find time to be still and to look up and around.
The hymns many sang as children in school or Sunday school have a profound simplicity and speak into our adult world. “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.” God’s creative power embraces all things. He is the source of all that is bright and beautiful in a world in which, sadly, many things are dark and ugly. He made the great things and the small things. None of us is so small that we are insignificant to him. This amazingly complex world reveals the perfect wisdom of God’s heart and mind.
When we catch glimpses of God’s glory revealed in his creation we spontaneously respond with awe and worship. It is the “Wow” factor! We are responding to the One who gave us life: “He gave us eyes to see them and lips that we might tell, how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well!” He is the same God who has revealed himself in his Son, Jesus Christ. During his ministry Jesus showed compassion and love for people as he healed and restored all who came to him. We, too, can come to him in our pain and despair and experience his wonderful love for us.