nature: our chance to SEE the invisible God

yesterday i wrote that the beauty all around us in creation is a pretty big deal. you can read that HERE.
it's a big deal because the visible creation basically shows us what the invisible God is like.

sometimes i write stuff like i wrote yesterday and later think "i don't know... am i crazy? maybe i shouldn't have written that? i mean, i was feeling really passionate and confident about it in the moment, but maybe i'm way off here?" (ever have that thought?)

if you read my post, then you know i was just interpreting and thinking out loud about Romans 1:20. but then i got to thinking that i had read Romans lots of times and even read lots of "commentaries" (fancy word for smart peoples' thoughts about something) about Romans 1, but had never really heard what i was saying... not in so many words, really.

stuff like:
"beauty shows us God. it's one of the best "visible" pictures we get."
& God's nature is not invisible... if you're looking at nature, then "you're looking at it."

is that out there or am i just saying what Paul said in Romans 1:20? "they" say there's nothing really "new" under the sun & that if you come up with some "new" thought then it's probably wrong.
so, it's always comforting to find someone long ago who said what you're saying. especially when it comes to thoughts about God (theology), because i'd rather not make that kind of thing up :)

so, i was reading a little John Calvin tonight... haha, yep, light night reading. actually, i had to read Calvin's Institutes back at the beginning of seminary, years ago (definitely NOT light reading) and i was just glancing back over some notes from it.

and some of this stuff from Calvin jumped off the page at me. he was saying the exact same stuff i was writing yesterday. so good news -- i didn't make it up :)  [as if]

Here's the gist of what he was saying:
“wherever we cast our gaze” we can spot signs of God’s glory, disclosed in “the whole workmanship of the universe.” Unless we dull our perception of it by sloth or self-interest, the vast system of the universe becomes for us “a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God who is otherwise invisible.”

the beauty of creation is like a mirror with God's very reflection in it. otherwise He is invisible, but when we look at creation we can actually see Him.
whoa.

creation is like a chance to read Scripture and the natural world together.

Both Scripture and science reveal God’s nature and interests. it’s like we have 2 books to show us God.

i love that idea.

but some of us are missing out on seeing God because we're too busy to notice the bird singing on the deck or the trees swaying in the breeze or the crazy blue sky.
we're too busy OR what Calvin calls our perceptions being dulled OR just being wrapped up in ourselves. all that causes us to miss out on something amazing.
seeing the very divinity of God.

& let me end these late night thoughts with this from 1561 (definitely before i ever thought of it this way)

“The universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God.” 

– The Belgic Confession