TIMELESS PARABLES OF DIVINE REVELATIONS | PART 1
More and more, I see nature as a live theater that features potential parables of divine revelations. Here I am not positioning for a certain concern I have regarding the environment and stewarding what God has mandated us to steward. What I am positioning, however, is what nature can teach us, teach us how to live and live well.
A connection is not lost between those who are avid walkers and nature lovers as Bruce H. Kirmmse observes in his translation of Soren Kierkegaard’s work, The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air. According to Kirmmse, Soren Kierkegaard and Henry David Thoreau were both avid walkers and thus were keen observers of nature and, might I add, what nature could teach humanity of God’s revelations. We can learn how to live life and live well based on what nature teaches us. "Do I want to live this life well?" I ask myself. "Then I need to walk," I answer myself. To walk with God who is “Three Mile an Hour God” (by Kosuke Koyama), we need to walk at that same pace to commune with God as three mile an hour is the speed of life as life happens.
A few Christmases ago, my children gave me and my wife both Apple Watches. I am somewhat proud to say that I am enslaved to it. I did not think I would wear anything around my wrist as I normally do not want to be encumbered. The watch won me over, for I allowed it to control my health and exercise habits. I like the fact that I can track my progress over time and often see myself push to break my own records. I even like the feature of earning badges as a result of a perfect exercise week, etc. I had been walking before the watch but never regularly or in a disciplined manner. The watch provided enough motivation and childlike incentives to walk and walk every day, wherever I may be. What I did not expect was the accumulating benefit of not only exercising but an awakening ability to see and observe things, particularly nature, at my walking speed. I walk when I am in Pasadena. I walked when I was in Yangpyeong and Namhae. I walk when I am in Seoul. I walk with my wife, my daughter’s husky, and occasionally with friends.
I noticed when I was away from the city vibes, including Pasadena, say in Yangpyeong, my daily walk was more of meditation than exercise. I noticed the subtle changes as the spring rolled forward and through the various weather changes. Below is a portion of my journal entry in Yangpyeong on May 4.
The most surprising teacher of them all here at Yangpyeong has been nature unfolding and changing before us every day. What nature simply is is a wonderful teacher, the most existential and thus the most available kind. Nature resembles and reflects God’s nature and character. It does not overpower us with its messages, but it presents a continuous changeless changing message if one can see and listen. It does not “speak” to us audibly, but it might as well, because nature’s speakers are everywhere. The very fact that nature perfectly obeys in love and does not betray the here and now, the present, has been the most powerful teacher, which I had not expected. In silence, it speaks to me to live in the here and now.