Thoughts from Chapter Five of Walking with the Creator
This past year, I focused my articles on chapters from my book, Walking with the Creator Along the Narrow Road. The book grew out of my own search for direction and healing. I had asked God how I could go on with life, and He gave me a beautiful answer; He said, "Look at who I am." I began looking at His creation because Romans 1:20 tells us that we can see His character and nature by looking at what He made. As I enjoyed the creation around me, researched some science books, and linked facts together with Scripture, a whole new world opened up to me.
The first truth He taught me was that Jesus is the Creator. "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3). It is one thing to say that some nebulous god created the world, but it is another thing to understand that the same God who perfumes the flowers, flavors my chocolate and spins the galaxies is the same One who went to the cross for me.
God first turned on the light and established the water systems; then He brought forth seed-bearing plants out of the dry ground. We cannot live without light and water, and we cannot live without seeds. We need plants for food, clothing, habitat, and oxygen, and most plants reproduce with seeds. God's gardening principles, like seeds, carry so much wisdom for life that I want to review five of them in three articles.
God's Gardening Principle #1
God Uses Small Things to Accomplish Great Things
God starts showing us His first gardening principle in the Old Testament. He promised Abraham and Sarah a baby boy in their old age. God gave them Isaac, who became the father of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Jacob had twelve sons and one of them was Judah. Jesus came from the tribe of Judah through Mary, His mother. That was quite a promise!
Moses did not see himself as a great leader when God chose him. He asked God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
God did not choose the nation of Israel to represent Him to the world because they were good and great. He chose them because they were few.
David was only a shepherd boy when God anointed him to become king.
God knew what He was getting when He chose you and me. "Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)
God's greatest picture of this principle is Jesus Himself. Who would ever think that the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Creator of the universe, would come to earth as a tiny baby and be born in a stable because the world He created had no room for Him? Isaiah tells us that He had no beauty that would make us desire Him. He just looked like a little piece of nothing, like a little seed, and Jesus came to be planted. "Jesus replied, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.'" (John 12:23-24)
I can only catch glimpses of His imagination, artistry and abundant nature. I really can't comprehend the depth of His love that moved Him to come as a little seed and give His life for all of us, but I thank Him for it and look forward to seeing more of His abundant harvest in the New Year.
Sue Carlisle grew up on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. An enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, her passion is to encourage people to look at creation and see our awesome Creator. Sue is author of Walking with the Creator Along the Narrow Road (2013 Indian Life Books). She and her husband, Wes, now live in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
