Two Men in the Woods
The man awoke early. The sun had barely begun to cast its light into his room, a dimness that the man had not seen in awhile. This used to be the time when he would awake, stumbling into the shower before the fog of sleep had lifted, fighting the urge to crawl back into bed until the sun did shine.
But different circumstances have changed this, and he rarely sees the world before dawn these days. It is not to his benefit, either - a certain dissatisfaction with his ability to get things done has risen to the surface. Misplaced priorities are hurting his soul, and this day was the day to jump start things.
To help out, he enlisted the help of a friend. The man had never gone into the woods with a friend before, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt. The two men got out of bed, relatively close to the time they had set. They decided to forgo breakfast - their hunger was not physical - and head into the woods.
The man’s friend had promised to take him to a new place. The friend had been there before, but the man had never ventured that way in the woods. The destination was a ridge that showed an excellent view of the nearby river and the town on the other shore. The journey to get there was quite haphazard, as the friend did not really remember how to get there. They wandered past tree stands, through neighborhoods, and under power lines until they finally arrived at the destination.
There was one moment on the journey when the two men stopped to rest and pray. They had just climbed a large hill and had sat on a flat rock, looking down into the woods that they had just traversed. Though the quiet noise from the nearby highway reminded them that they were not completely free from human influence, the stains of litter and roads and equipment in the woods was not in sight there. This left them free to focus on the bright sun that illuminated the beautifully colored leaves on the trees. The already excellent fall air, crisp and cool, was enhanced by the fragrance emanating leaves already on the ground. The scene was peaceful, and it led to praise of God. Nothing new, no revelation, but a reminder of the beauty that God has given them. God had enabled them to see color, smell scents, touch the textures of the leaves and the trees and the rocks around them, and hear the crunching of the leaves as they walked over them.
When the men had finally reached their destination, the man was somewhat disappointed. While the view was good, he was disappointed in the fact that it was from the end of a cul-de-sac in an upscale neighborhood. This certainly dampened the natural element that defines the man’s trips into the woods.
So they turned around, at the suggestion of the man’s friend that they return to the woods to do what they came to do - reconnect with God. So they went, following a pipeline back into the woods, back down the hill they had previously climbed. Arriving in a different spot that was just as isolated as the spot where they had previously stopped, they chose to drop their things and pray.
The man did not know what to expect, really. He had already taken in nature and prayed a bit, what more was there to say? But this is a man in the woods, a man in a place where God reigns supreme. Perhaps his dissatisfaction with the lookout was that, while it was beautiful, it showed off what man has created. Bridges are cool, buildings are cool, and one can look at them and praise God for the ability He gives man to create, and one can praise Him because “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,” but it was back in the woods where the man could cut humans out of the picture and simply praise God for what He directly created.
And so that’s what he did, for the second time that day. And as he prayed, his attention was often fixed on a tree growing right in front of him. He thought about this verse:
Luke 19:40
He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.
Sometimes, the man will take this as a challenge: “Don’t let rocks outdo you!” But today, this passage reminded the man that every element of nature has the capability to praise God. In a line that could be considered silly, the man told the tree to be praising and glorifying God. Then, this passage came to his mind:
Romans 1:19-20
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
While a tree is certainly limited in what it can reveal about God, there can be no doubt that it does reveal things about God. One can look at a tree and see aesthetic beauty and the technical mastery of a careful and diligent Creator. One can look at the size of a tree and be humbled by it, realizing that God must be even bigger than this large plant looking over one’s head. The fact that creation exists can be enough to convince one that there must be a Creator.
“Isn’t it interesting that a tree can do all that!” the man thought to himself. He then thought of this verse:
1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Here he had told this tree to be praising and glorifying God, but this tree was already doing so! It doesn’t have legs or a mouth, so it doesn’t have to go to the ends of the earth and proclaim the Gospel. It can’t read, so it doesn’t have to get into the Bible and learn more about God from it.
But it is supposed to assist in making God’s invisible attributes more clearly perceived, and in this it does everything it can do. It grows tall, inspiring people like the man standing before it to praise God. It makes the glory of God known, and it therefore does what the man is supposed to do with a greater consistency that he has ever achieved.
The man was humbled. He bowed before the Lord, realizing that he has no place to tell anything other than people about the glory of God, because everything in nature does it better than humanity! Unless he’s missing something, humans are the only creatures who rebel and go against the plans that the Lord has for them. Perhaps this is because He has blessed us with the most gifts, or because He puts the most responsibility on us. Whatever the case, the man realized that he needs to focus more on giving glory to God.
He emerged out of the woods with his friend soon thereafter, with the hope that he might glorify God as well as the trees he left behind.
Photo taken by Stock.Xchng user grim.
