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Appreciate Earth’s Natural, Quiet Beauty, August 12
Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, or a path for the
thunderbolt, to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, a wilderness
in which there is no man; to satisfy the desolate waste, and cause to spring
forth the growth of tender grass?
Job 38:25-27
, NKJV.
He who laid the foundation of the earth, who garnished the heavens and mar-
shaled the stars in their order, He who has clothed the earth with a living carpet,
and beautified it with lovely flowers of every shade and variety, would have His
children appreciate His works and delight in the simple, quiet beauty with which
He has adorned their earthly home.
Christ sought to draw the attention of His disciples away from the artificial to
the natural: “If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and to morrow
is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”
Why did not our heavenly Father carpet the earth with brown or gray? He chose
the color that was most restful, the most acceptable to the senses. How it cheers the
heart and refreshes the weary spirit to look upon the earth, clad in its garments of
living green! Without this covering the air would be filled with dust, and the earth
would appear like a desert. Every spire of grass, every opening bud and blooming
flower, is a token of God’s love, and should teach us a lesson of faith and trust in
Him. Christ calls our attention to their natural loveliness, and assures us that the
most gorgeous array of the greatest king that ever wielded an earthly scepter was
not equal to that worn by the humblest flower....
I would present before you Christ and Him crucified. Give Him your heart’s
best affections. Give Him your intellect; it belongs to Him. Give Him your talents
of means and of influence; they were only lent to you for improvement. Jesus
laid aside His robes of royalty, stepped down from His eternal throne, clothed His
divinity with humanity, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty
might become rich. Rich in money? in lands? in bank stock? No; that we might
secure eternal riches.
There is no salvation except that which comes through Christ. He came to earth
to lift up the fallen. With His human arm He encircles the race, while with His
divine arm He grasps the throne of the infinite, thus connecting finite humans to the
infinite God, and uniting earth to heaven.—
The Review and Herald, October 27,
1885
.
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