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!

What would spring be without irises?

One of our small iris beds. The photo is a link to a Flickr post, and you can see other iris photos, linked within that post.

Thanks for looking! Isn't God a great artist?

Waterdrops on Flowers: Two recent photos

Raindrops on a lavender plant, Lavandula (I think) taken in a church parking lot in San Diego, CA.



Raindrops on a yellow rose, somewhere in San Diego County (I forget where). Perhaps in the same church parking lot.

I like water drops in photos, and am grateful that I was able to take both of these photos in 2010. The photos above also serve as live links to the originals, which are larger, and posted on Flickr. No password is necessary to access my Flickr photostream.

Thanks for looking!

Consider the lilies, part 2

The photo above is of a lily flower. I thought that it was only right that I include such a picture, since I didn't include it in my post on "Consider the Lilies." The six elongated objects are stamens, coated with pollen. The three-lobed object near the right edge is the stigma, which functions to catch pollen. This photo was not adjusted for color -- that's the way the camera took it, and the way my eye saw it. It is doubtful that people of  the time of Christ would have ever seen such a plant -- I'm pretty sure that it's the result of careful selection and breeding.

The photo is a link to my Flickr photo, where you can see larger sizes, if you wish.

Thanks for looking! I'm returning to more routine, or normal (for me, anyway) matters soon. I've been traveling.

Close-up or red lily, showing reproductive parts

This is an unretouched close-up of a lily flower. The six weiner-shaped objects are the anthers. As you can see, they were producing pollen when the photo was taken. They are, of course, held up by filaments. Together, the two parts make up stamens. The three-lobed object on the right, about halfway up, is a stigma. It is held up by a style, which connects the stigma to the ovary. (You can't see that in this photo.) The stigma is where pollen lands, and, if all goes well, fertilization will take place, resulting in an embryo in a seed, in the ovary.

The background consists of three petals, with three sepals, which look just like the petals in this flower, being outside the petals. You can see a sepal or two showing through. Isn't God a great artist? (Larger sizes should be available by clicking on the photo, if you wish to see more detail.)

I expect to be doing some family travel. I've got some posts scheduled to go out on the next two Sundays, and will probably be able to do a Sunspots on Wednesday, but, otherwise, I'm out of the blogging business for over a week.

Thanks for reading and/or looking. God's best to all of you.

Phlox, aka thrift, with morning dew

This is a photo of Phlox, known locally as thrift, growing in our lawn, with dew on the flower parts. The actual flowers are about an inch, or 3 cm, across. They grow close to the ground, and come also in white, and in a darker purple color.

Isn't God a great artist?

We will be having some family doings for the next few days, so I don't expect to be blogging, or reading your posts.

Thanks for looking.