Thought for Thursday: Restoration

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:20-21

This fall, I will be going to graduate school in the field of historic preservation. Historic preservation is the protection, conservation, and restoration of object, buildings, and other things valuable to the human story. Thus, the idea of restoration is an important one for me. And, according to the passage above, it is important to understanding human destiny.

Creation and Worship

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am working this summer at Jacob’s Pillow Dance. The school is in Becket, a small town which is set in the of magnificent, predominately deciduous forest. As a consequence, the almost hour-long drive down and back through the lush green of spring woods and vegetation has refreshed my realization of just how beautiful Berkshire County is. Well, a week or two ago, I was on break from the kitchen, and went out onto the back porch to eat lunch. My prayer life has been very weak for quite some time, so I decided to take some time to pray. As I was looking for things to verbally praise God for, when I just started looking around at the trees and other natural wonders around me. A chipmunk came onto the porch, so I directed my eyes to it. I basically just watched it and verbally in my head just praised God for what I was seeing. However, I then went from a state of prayer, which is an articulated talk with God, to just observing the movements of the chipmunk and consciously being aware of how it glorifies God. This second state I would not call prayer, as I was no longer mentally talking, but rather just observing and “being.” This state of simply observing and “being” while consciously reflecting everything back to God was quite wonderful, and I think it gives an inkling to what the new earth will be like, a constant state of worship. While the moment that I experienced was fleeting, it is one in which I am trying to live every second of my life, and fail at miserably. But I still manage to consciously reflect my actions back to God at least some of the time, and there have been several times at work when amidst the hustle and bustle I’ve been able to say “God, this is what I am supposed to do. You made to work the best that I can!”