Midsummer Musings

A Walk in Wilderness

If you never had a canon or collection of sacred texts, you’d still have all you need to navigate the spiritual life. The Bible tells us so. “Ever since God created the world, God’s everlasting power and divinity—however invisible—are there for the mind to see in the things that God has made.” God’s first testament wasn’t a text, it was Creation. Humans lived for 300,000 years without any written missive from God. Maybe we should have kept it that way. “Don’t dare put the second Bible in the hands of people who have not sat lovingly at the feet of the first Bible. They will invariably manipulate, mangle, and murder the written text,” warns Father Richard Rohr. However, it’s almost impossible to weaponize God’s first Word.

Nature is our most enduring teacher. The season’s cycles were the first to tell us about death and resurrection. Nothing really ends. All deaths birth new beginnings. Earth’s rhythms also point to the universality and inevitability of change. Look around you. Everything is in a sort of in-between state. That tree in your backyard, your dog, or the flowers in your garden—all living things are forever unfolding through the eternal rhythm of birth, growth, flourishing, and fading. Impermanence is one of the immutable realities of life. Your body is changing as you read this. You are not the person you were yesterday, and you’ve yet to become who you will be tomorrow.

In the midst of our cultural, spiritual, and political crises, I’ve instinctively headed outside. Tuesday was my birthday. To celebrate, my son and I hiked deep into the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The trail wound its way through high alpine meadows flush with Bluebells and Columbines. We crisscrossed a snowmelt stream and spent an hour or so trout fishing near tree line. It was good to get out far from the madding crowd. As we made our way off the mountain, I reflected on this astonishing book of nature. I listened to what God’s first revelation wanted to teach me. Instead of beating you over the head with commands and rules, she gently guides, tutors, and inspires. Naturalist John Muir believed God is still writing passages in nature’s sacred text.

Here’s three things I read in Nature’s Bible as we strode deep into the Colorado backcountry.