This is my father’s world
“This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ear, all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.”
It began with walking our daughter’s dog in the wilderness near our home, the profusion of wild flowers in their glory – daisies, buttercups, fireweed, paint brush – then a drive to Vancouver with spectacular scenery of forest lands, rolling grasslands of the Cariboo, desert interspersed with irrigated hay fields near Cache Creek. The rugged Fraser Canyon opened up to the lush plains of the Fraser Valley, bordered by mountain ranges to the north and Mt. Baker to the south.
Then we rode the ferry to Victoria for two wonderful weeks on the Saanich peninsula at my brother’s seaside home. The view was spectacular with constant activity on the water – the grandfather bearded great blue heron perched in the tree or fishing along the shore, a pair of otters at play or seals poking their heads up.
Human activity included sailboats, kayaks, paddle boards, swimmers, water skiers, fishermen checking crab traps, and coast guard ships on patrol.
Everywhere we were surrounded by beauty, reminding me of the psalmist’s words: “O Lord by God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty... How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.”
Beacon Hill Park displayed a gorgeous profusion of flowerbeds and rose gardens with peacocks strutting by, and rugged garry oaks, arbutus and wild grasses closer to the coastline. Butchart Gardens wowed us with a spectacular display of flowers and shrubs in an old limestone quarry that the Butchart family had transformed it into an amazing wonderland.
We explored the wild beauty of the coast – hiking on trails and wandering along the shoreline, overturning rocks on the tide flat with our granddaughters to find crabs; enjoying a picnic lunch at windy French Beach; exploring the “potholes” along the Sooke River and climbing among the giant cedars at Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew.
We followed a pod of orcas with their new baby calf travelling through Active Pass and a pair of humpback whales. The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory focused our eyes on the universe around us and displays marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing where Neil Armstrong left a copy of Psalm 8:“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!... When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?”
The amazing fact is that the God who created this majestic universe also cares for us. Jesus taught us that God of creation is a father who cares for the flowers and tiny creatures. The beauty that surrounds us reminds us of an awesome, almighty Creator who we can call “Father.”
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
What a privilege to be His child!