Getting Back to Nature

We all have a craving for something, but we don’t know what it is.  A deep longing that can’t be named and comes out in what can be odd and even dangerous ways.  We have lost something, but we don’t know what it is, where to look for it, and how to recognize it if we found it.  Sometimes this longing manifests itself when people say, “I want to find myself.”  In one sense of the meaning that is the dumbest thing a person can say.  Look at the ground, that is where you are, you have now found yourself; congratulations.  In another way, “finding oneself” is about discovering one's place and connection to the whole of life and the universe.  In their late teens and early twenties more than a few young adults have gone on lengthy expeditions to find themselves.  Walking across the continent, hiking the AT, or the Pacific Crescent, riding the TAT.  These adventures are symptoms of looking for something.  Often discovering the question is more important than finding the answer.  But what is to be found sleeping in a tent in the wilderness at the mercy of the elements?

Another example is people developing relationships with animals. I've known more than a few people who said they like animals better than human beings. In view of the behavior of some human beings, that's understandable. But this quest for extreme relationships of animals goes far beyond having a dog or cat or goldfish. People will dedicate their lives to learning about every detail about specific animals. People will travel the globe to scuba dive and see some exotic fish or coral reefs. Some climb high into the Himalayan Mountains to get a picture of a snow leopard. In some cases, they will even dedicate their lives to having exotic animals. There seems to be a search for a connection to something and these animals appear to be the doorway. What are we looking for that we are trying to find in this return to nature?

 Sometimes we find disastrous results in these efforts to go back to nature. More than a few people have died of exposure, dehydration, malnutrition, poisoning or accidents while they are out in the wild. Nature seems to be fickle and untrustworthy. The accounts of wild animals that were thought to be domesticated but turned into killers or naturalists who in the wild are killed by animals are not terribly uncommon. Nevertheless, people continue to look for something in nature the way salmon return to the stream where they were hatched.  For what are we looking?  

In Genesis 2, we learned that God made a beautiful world populated by plants, animals and  something special: the human being.  For an undetermined period of time Adam and Eve lived in a paradise along with the flora and fauna.  There was a stewardship or management of creation given to the humans, both meaningful work and delightful enjoyment.  But as a result of sin the whole of creation is thrown into chaos and corruption. The relationships within the paradise in the creation is disrupted and indeed becomes hostile.  That paradise of Eden exists only in the memory of the race who ruined it.  A memory that haunts us like a delightful, recurring dream that always ends too soon.  It is like a splinter in the mind and inflammation of the soul, an inexhaustible longing for something we know not what, but are sure we would recognize it if we ever saw it.   

We are homesick for Eden.  Every heart throb caused by a sunset over the ocean, every soul sigh that comes from looking at a perfect rose, every fantasy to snuggle a bear, play tag with a lion, or swim with a dolphin is a homesick cry for Eden.  Eden is coming back, not by man learning to live in harmony with a fallen world.  Eden is coming back because God will restore the broken world.  As Isaiah says

Also the cow and the bear will graze,

Their young will lie down together,

And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,

And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

As the waters cover the sea.

Let every pang of your heart call you to Eden or, I should say, call you back to the God who made you for Eden.