Editor: Dr Ruth Bancewicz, who is based at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge, writes on the positive relationship between Science and Christian faith.
© Ruth Bancewicz
Wonder and Worship: Reflections in a Scottish Rainforest
It can be easier to notice things away from home, when we are relaxed and surrounded by unfamiliar sights in an exotic location. But sometimes the same wonders are there in our own back yard. GK Chesterton was a great advocate of intensive observation, and he invited his readers to take a fresh look at things that might be taken for granted. The rewards for this mental adjustment are great, and can feed into our worship in new ways.
I first learned to appreciate old growth forests on the West coast of Canada: the centuries-old tangle of logs and underbrush, and thick layers of moss and lichen, that provide rich resources for countless organisms. Several years later, in Scotland, I stumbled over a few acres of birch and hazel, lush with moss and ferns, and humming with insect and bird life. Fallen logs lay everywhere, vegetation grew up the trees, creepershung down, and sunlight slanted through clearings.
I later discovered that this patch of woodland is one of the few remaining areas of old growth Atlantic rainforest, so I visited one sunny morning when I had more time to linger. The wood is home to 140 species of lichen and 100 of moss, so I found myself looking very closely at tree trunks and boulders. Each lichen is a unique relationship between a fungus and a particular collection of single-celled algae – an example of the collaboration that is so essential to every ecosystem.
Places like this are worth preserving, respecting, and appreciating as much as a work of art or a historic city. I’m so grateful to the community that chose to preserve it, and the Creator who used such intricate and patient processes to create it. As the animals and plants around me did what comes to them naturally, I did what I was made for – thanking God for everything I saw. I found myself praising God alongside all those species of lichen, moss and trees. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (Psalm 150).
There is a growing call to take both our personal devotions and our church services outside from time to time, and there are a growing number of resources to help us do this. As you go through your week, can you find one new way to appreciate your surroundings, and praise God alongside the rest of creation?