Reflections on God's wonderful creation
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Ingmar Bergman once said, "Old age is like climbing a mountain. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become, but your view becomes much more extensive."
I can vouch for that.
In the advanced years, most people have learned many practical lessons, sometimes through hard knocks or through the experience of others.
If a person pays attention, he sees more and more of the hand of God in his life, and more and more of the truth's of God's word become validated.
Perhaps I am a little more aware of God's handiwork, because in doing this writing I try to concentrate on spiritual things and observe His signs.
Psalm 19, verses 1-4 tells how the handiwork of God speaks to us without words - if we are paying attention.
Some say old age is a time for regrets, but for me it is never ending source of wonder. Today, as I dwell more and more on spiritual matters, some of the most insignificant things take on a new importance.
Florida Scott-Maxwell writes, "Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age."
So, for this writing I wish to call attention to some of the things we may not fully appreciate as we often take them for granted. Fruit, for example: ostensibly God created fruit as a means of perpetuating the species, but why is it then that so many fruits are healthful and delicious and far larger than necessary to reproduce the species?
Try making a list of all the fruit you can remember or look them up in an encyclopedia; you will be surprised at the number.
Then there are the animals. What a great diversity of them there are. Can you imagine evolution producing a snail? Would evolution produce a kangaroo that hops or a spider that spins a web?
Then there are butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. Giraffes with their long necks are browsers, eating the high leaves of trees.
How unusual for a snake to slither along the ground - that took some real planning. There are burrowing animals that live in the ground, monkeys that live in trees, fish that live in the sea. Finally, how about the turtle, with his impregnable castle?
Moreover, every living thing has the sexual capacity to reproduce by its kind.
The Bible does not speak of the imagination of God, but how else could He come up with such a diversity?
"Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who have pleasure in them. Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures for ever." (Ps. 111:2-3)
Advanced age is a time for serious thinking. Jokes I used to enjoy now seem childish. Beautiful memories come flooding back. Friendships are more precious.
Many friends and relatives have already passed on. Eternity looms; the best is yet to come.
Raymond F. Smith is a deacon at Fellowship Bible Church in Victoria and President of Strong Families of Victoria.
