The Divine is in the details

Leaning in, holding my breath, I raise my camera toward the coiled rattlesnake.  It is, by far, the largest creature that my friend and I have come across today in our walk in the woods.  And the most dangerous.  The subtle and beautiful pattern on its scales fills my viewfinder.

 

When we headed toward the trail, I asked Scott to bring along his macro lens.  Like any good outing in nature, we had no idea what we’d find.  I just wanted to enjoy the smallest details of God’s handiwork.

I had plenty of opportunities.

 

We first came across a tiny eft of a red spotted salamander, its bright orange skin a sign to predators of its toxicity.

A little later, we discovered an ancient box turtle, reluctant to pose.

 

I turned my camera to plants as well, reveling in the unfolding fingers of a fern.

And in the delicate, long stamen of a pinxterflower or wild azalea.

Today, I am caught up in the glory of the miniscule. Psalm 104:24 turns my delight into praise:

            O LORD, how manifold are your works!
                        In wisdom have you made them all;
                        the earth is full of your creatures.

Derek Kidner, in his commentary on the Psalms, explains the verse eloquently.  “What the skeptic sees as a meaningless swarm of life, the psalmist teaches us to view as giving some inkling of the Creator’s wealth, and of the range and precision of his thought.”  He points out that the word for creatures is in most other places translated as possessions.   In fact, some translations have the earth full of God’s riches.

I wholeheartedly concur.  Nature is a vast storehouse of treasures, each one a reminder of the Creator’s unsurpassed imagination – from the veins of petals to bejeweled eyes, from the black pearls of wriggling tadpoles to the rasp of a snake’s rattle.

How kind of him to share his wealth with me.

And to remind me which treasures not to touch!

O LORD, how manifold are your works.  How you lavish upon us designs and beauty that stagger our feeble, imitative imaginations.  The world is filled with your riches!  And no matter how close we zoom in, we find the same wealth of detail and order.  Your signature is in every frame.  You are so good to share it all with us.