God’s Playground
Growing up, I was a playground kid. I’d spend as many hours as mom would tolerate romping on bark chips, clambering up slides, and hanging off of railings. My ultimate goal was always to reach the highest point I could manage – all so that I could feel the thrill of jumping off to the ground below.
In my 30’s, I’m still looking for playgrounds. Except, I’ve traded the bark chips for dirt paths and the play structures for boulders. This past weekend, I was treated to some time in one of these playgrounds. It was a little spot only locals know about in Central Washington. Together with a couple of friends, I jumped cliffs, climbed rocks, crossed ravines, explored caverns, and smiled a lot. I was a little boy again – except mom was nowhere to be found, and the playground was made by God.
On the journey home, one buddy remarked about how much beauty God has made that is simply and totally for Himself. There are canyons hewn through dense forests that no eye has seen. There are caves and caverns that no man has touched. Bright blue glacial lakes at the tops of unscaled mountains. God says so Himself – responding to Job’s challenges in chapter 38:25-27 by saying:
Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,
to bring rain on a land where no man is,
on the desert in which there is no man,
to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?
Why would God water the uninhabited? Why make creation, that no man has seen, so beautiful? Because creation wasn’t created for man – it was created for God! God made it all, and tends it all, and makes it beautiful because He delights to do so. Because it honors Him and gives Him glory. And this creator – He is still creating. Through the pressures of water that erodes the rocks, through tides that ebb and flow, and mountains that shake and erupt, He is right now shaping and sculpting like a cosmic artist.
As I jumped into the icy mountain water last weekend – I was reminded that God loves me. For, while God expresses His deep and boundless love most clearly through Christ, He also expresses His love through inviting us to enjoy what He has made. While creation was made by Him and for Him – it is also for us to behold and enjoy Him. Paul says it this way in Romans 1:20 – “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
The world is God’s playground – and to see it and experience it is to learn of God’s inexhaustible attributes. Oh church, what a God we have – that He would share His handiwork with us, and by so doing, share Himself with us.
As we enjoy the last bits of Summer – I’d implore you to find some cold mountain water to jump in, or a trail to explore, or a lake to survey. Go find some of God’s playground and play in it. And as you do, what I think you’ll find is a reinvigorated affection for God. I certainly did.
In Christ’s mercy,
Pastor Ryan Aufenkamp