This is a personal reflection on the importance of nature and the love of God.
She asks: “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon ….”
He responds: “I compare you my love, to a mare of
Pharaoh’s chariots.”
She: “While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth
its fragrance. My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts.
… a cluster of henna blossoms ….”
He: “Behold, you are beautiful, my love; … your eyes are like doves.”
She: “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.”
He: “As a lily among brambles, so is my love among
maidens.”
She: “As
an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. ….
Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am sick with love. ….
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the hinds of
the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please. …. My
beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag. …. My beloved speaks and says to
me:
He:
"Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and
gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and
the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its
figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance.”
She:
“Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards, for our
vineyards are in blossom. My beloved is mine and I am his, he pastures
his flock among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn,
my beloved, be like a gazelle, or a young stag upon rugged mountains.”[1]
How
closely this dialogue between lovers is permeated by an appreciation of those
things created by God. Love’s passion is excited by the sights and smells of
nature unfolding; an unfolding that takes place without the intervention of
men. Man’s gaze is directed heavenward.
“What
is man that thou are mindful of him ….”[2]
“Thou
hast given him dominion over the works of his hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds
of the air, and the fish of the sea ….”[2]
But now, in the comparatively short span of time man’s gaze has shifted. That expression of appreciation of mankind for the gift and its creator, i.e. mankind’s gaze heavenward, , has turned inward. We are now enamored of our ability to exercise dominion over nature. The natural world is no longer looked on as a beautiful creation of God. Rather nature is seen as a haphazard circumstance to be dominated and improved upon by man's intelligence alone. No longer appreciative of nature and its orderly progressions, man has fallen in love with his ability to transform nature and create his own gifts.
Glass
and steel buildings, advanced modes of communication, genetic engineering and
manipulation of climate are all within man’s power. Given enough time there is
nothing man cannot accomplish. We even seek to control time itself.
Lord, help us to return our look heavenward in appreciation of the beauty and order of the gifts you have created. Give us the ability to see the perfection inherent in your creation.
[2] ibid, Ps
8:6-8
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