What we should/should not be thinking of

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (World English Bible)

That passage indicates that we should think about, and consider, the good in God's world, and the good that other people do. And it also indicates that we should avoid thinking of thangs that aren't good, in the society we live in.

That's hard. I'm something of a news junkie. CBS has been featuring Steve Hartman, reporting on the good in people, every week, for years. The network also reports on the good, nearly every evening. NBC has done the same thing, weekly, even explicitly reminding us that they are telling us about the good that people do.  I don't watch ABC or Fox evening news. Perhaps they, too, are highlighting good things. I hope so. Local TV news seems to be a morass of shootings, politicians lying, and people being horribly mistreated. There's an old saying, I think about newspapers (whatever they were!) "If it bleeds, it leads." There is plenty of bleeding in the world, but we emphasize it way too much.

Thanks for reading. I hope this post has done you some good. 

The beauty of nature

I haven't been blogging much lately. Maybe I should start again. What topic should I choose? Here's one: the beauty of nature. 

Nature is beautiful, and we should thank God for it. 

Jesus told us to consider the lilies:  Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

He didn't say that Solomon was not gloriously arrayed. But He did say that lilies (and other flowers) were and are, and He implied that we humans are never going to surpass the beauty of nature.

I need to speak of God's work in nature more often.

Thanks for reading.

Why does the Bible say so little about nature's beauty?

Bougainvillea flowers, with orange bracts

In an address a few years ago, Bible scholar N. T. Wright answered the question of the title of this post. His answer was that creation's beauty is an intrinsic property of nature, and, as such, not generally described just for itself.

God's creation surely is beautiful, and can be appreciated by anyone with normal or nearly normal vision.

I found a few Biblical references to the beauty of nature:
2 Chronicles 3:6a He garnished the house with precious stones for beauty:

Hosea 14:6 His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. (Apparently referring to the fragrance of the plant life in Lebanon.)

Genesis 49:21 "Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns. ..."

Ecclesiastes 3:11a He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Psalm 104:31 Doesn't mention beauty, but it sounds like it is there, in God's creation: Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.

James 1:11a For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. (There are other verses which speak of plant life losing beauty, such as this one. But they do state that plant life has beauty, however temporary it may be. The Bible also speaks, in several places, about women's beauty, and Moses was said to be a beautiful child, but this post is about the beauty of non-human nature.)

Although the last chapter in the Bible doesn't specifically mention beauty, it's hard to read it without imagining great beauty in the new earth: Revelation 22:1 He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The first chapter in the Bible says that everything God created was good, implying that it was beautiful.

Thank God for the beauty of God's creation, from the sub-microscopic to the cosmic!