My Compliments to the Artist

I am a firm believer that humankind with all its whistles and bells and faster technology takes nature for granted.

I regret to say that I don’t go hiking as much as I’d like to– but a friend of mine is notorious for the opposite. He has gone on several large-scale trips where he ventures up some mountain, ‘roughs-it’ in the brush with a small tent and easy-to-carry sleeping bag and just totally submerges himself in the beauty of creation.

I’m not sure if he has any relational connection to Jesus (so we may work on this closely =] ) but this to me seems like such a phenomenal experience and want to get into something like this hiking trip with one who is experienced. (… nudge, nudge Mark…)

Anyways, there was indeed a point to me rambling on that–

I was lying beside the pool today while my brother and sister splashed around in the water. The sun was finally free of cloudy tendrils and it set a warm and ever so slightly searing heat wave across the skin of my exposed back. As I lay there on the rather uncomfortably formed plastic sun-chair, I let go of one of my senses, sight, and the others were heightened.

First off i noted the discomfort experienced by the chair. Going back to the original thought, its rather remarkable how people try and make life easier for others while in all honesty, they kinda mess things up. Example? This plastic chair, one would think would be quite comfortable; and it is– when you’re lying on your back. The instant you turn over onto you stomach however, the bit that supposedly comforts your thighs (while on your back) juts up into your quads and suspends your feet and shins above the plastic of the rest of the chair. Disagreeable? Yes, yes it is.

Anyways, all frustrations around the chair aside, I was able to smell a combination of my favourite scents, sun-screen and chlorine while listening to water sloshing about and birds chirping in a nearby tree.

Do you realize how remarkable this is? Now, I know this may sound utterly blown over the top, but let me piece this together bit-by-bit and you’ll hopefully be able to get my awe.

First off, in North America, the fact that we have a lotion… an oil based concoction that we can apply to our skin to disallow the sun from killing us with skin cancer and burns? Brilliant indeed — it smells exactly like summer — It’s also good to note that when we apply it, we not only resist crisping over, but also it protects our cells that we are further able to produce vitamin D and stay healthy while spending time under the harmful (though phenomenal) rays of the sun. Whoever came up with the stuff deserves a nobel prize, especially for women like my mum. She has two colours, white and red, and this lovely cream prevents the latter ever so slightly: needless to say, she is very pleased.

Second off, chlorine just smells lovely. I shan’t get into the details of it because ultimately, its a wee bit disgusting. Pools (which chlorine is closely associated with) are also strange things. Think about it like you just moved here from the middle of Ghana or something. People on this earth, albeit wealthy parts of this earth, dig out funny shapes in the ground, fill it will hollowed out cement and pour water into it so that they may have a bit of ocean in the comfort of their mid-prairie, urban, suburb located home. Kinda daft, don’t cha think? And then, as if we weren’t weird enough, along comes a bloke who goes ‘hey, I want to help toddlers stay aloft– lets create self-blow up loops to place around the upper arms so that their arms stay up while the rest of them is under the water; and to BOOT, we shall call them… hmm… water wings!’ Random? Yessir. Peculiar? of course. Norm in North America? Sadly.

Third: bird song! These animals are tiny bits of muscle, sinew and feather, poofing up to organize their feathers and straightening them with their beaks. They can’t pick things up and feel them with fingers (as they have no arms) but they sing regardless. These creatures know cold and hunger and pain, but they sing their little hearts out anyways, and its beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, there are some birds who squawk and screech (my own cockatiels when no one is around to let them outa their cage) and make an all-round dreadful noise, but in general, the beauty they expound with their voices is so lovely that it can just cease the frustrations and complex stress knots of the days and weeks to dissipate to smooth muscle.

God is so good. He is creative and I’m personally so glad that while we can sit in man-made complexes, He still works his fingers and creation into the corners of the concrete– and in doing so, can remind me of the absolutely astounding world we’ve been nudged into.