my heart saw before my eyes did: god's creation

Everyone finds God in different ways. For some it could be in large group praise and worship, for others it could be through reading, others may find God in traditional prayer. All of these are valid. At no point will I ever say that one form of prayer is better than another. For me personally, I find God in silence in His creation. I love just kicking my shoes off and sitting in the grass or putting a good pair of shoes on and going for a long hike. Even just stopping and feeling the wind against my face, blowing in my hair and taking a deep breath to smell all the different trees, flowers and grasses that God created here on this earth.

I see creation as God’s gift to me. He formed it in His hand and placed it in my life. I see the wind as God kissing my cheeks and wrapping me in His sacred embrace. Massaging the ground with my feet and feeling God tickle between my toes with the grass. The examples go on and on.

God not only made everything on this earth but He created galaxies bigger than the human mind can comprehend. Does the universe have an end? I don’t know. God knows though. From the stars so far away that we can’t even see to the dust that collects in our homes, God made it all. Look out your window. That was made by God specifically for YOU. God knew that, that tree or that patch of grass or the sky that is always over your head would make you a little happier or make your life a little better. Creation is amazing. As soon as we think we know everything there is to know about nature, we learn something new. The learning never stops because as we search creation, we search the person of God.

My personal testimony:

This is my story of learning to fully appreciate creation.

From the time I was born I have had what is called, “a red, green deficiency”. That is basically a fancy way of saying that you are partially colour blind. I knew I was, so it was never a big deal to me. I couldn’t see shades of colours, so I wore some stuff that colour clashed. No big deal… who cares. It was a part of me, so I was always fine with it. If nothing else, it was just a fun fact about myself I could pull out if in my schooling years when a teacher forced people to say a fun fact about themselves.

About a year ago, something unexpected happened… I was participating in a prayer session that was getting pretty intense and a lot of people were crying and resting in the spirit (we attribute this behaviour to the power of the Holy Spirit. The practice is associated with faith healing because individuals are often slain while seeking prayer for illness.) I had never really seen this before so I thought it was freaking weird. We were encouraged to go have people pray over us in this time and I was like “cool. I’ll do that. That’s normal but I’m not resting in the Spirit.” So, I went to get prayed over and I remember seeing a solid pink water bottle right before I closed my eyes. To be honest, I can’t remember a word the people praying over me said but while they were I felt myself starting to fall back. I caught myself and thought “No. We’re not resting in the Spirit tonight”. Then I started to go back again and I caught myself a second time. Then, I felt myself going back a third time and I thought, “I hope nobody’s behind me because I'm gonna fall”. I was laying on my back and I just remember seeing black but I wasn’t seeing with my eyes at this point. I was seeing with my heart. In this darkness, a crack of white light spread across my vision, then it got bigger. Pieces started to fall away until all there that was left was a blinding white light and when I opened my eyes the ceiling was so red it was hurting my eyes and when I sat up I saw that bottle... that solid pink bottle wasn’t one solid colour anymore but two. I could see.

For the first time in my life I could see God’s creation the way he made it. In all of its glory.

The next day I went to the ocean with some friends and when I saw the waves and the different blues, I felt tears running down my face and there was nothing I could do to stop them. God reached down and touched my heart, my soul and my eyes to bring me closer to Him and His gift of creation

Do you see and appreciate creation as the gift that it is in your life?

- Written by L. M Clark