Creative Worship

Hi friends,

Over the past year or so I've been drawn more and more to the beauty of nature, particularly flowers. Maybe it has been living opposite a park and being surrounded by green, maybe it is because I've discovered a new hobby in making crepe paper flowers, but there's something about the variety and beauty of flowers and nature that I find breathtaking.

The psalmists also noticed the beauty and variety of nature, and recognised that this pointed to the Creator - our Lord God who created the birds and bees, the flowers and trees, in all their spectacular varieties. In Psalm 104, the psalmist exclaims 'O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.' That word manifold is one we don't hear in our modern English very often, but it points to both the quantity and variety of what God has made. And the psalmist recognises that the reason God made all these things is because of his infinite wisdom. 

God knows how each living thing is connected to another in the enormous and wonderfully complex ecosystem he has created. He also knows how much we need to be around nature, to appreciate its beauty and marvel at its Creator. When was the last time you stopped and studied the intricacies of a flower, with its varying shades of colour and petal shapes? When was the last time you looked at an animal and noticed with wonder its extraordinary features? I think the reason we don't do this as often as perhaps we need to is because of busyness. We rush through life from one appointment to the next, checking things off our 'to do' list, and we inadvertently hurry past the opportunities we have to stop and wonder at God's creation. Can I encourage you to take time today, or this coming week, to behold the wisdom of God as manifest in his manifold creation?

I used a bunch of Sweet 'n Sassy stamp sets on this page in my Journaling Psalter (you could say manifold designs!), including the new Song Birds and God is Faithful sets, along with some older favourites. I stamped all the images with black ink and coloured with Inktense pencils and an aquabrush. 

Be blessed... 

x Amy x