God's Creation is All Around Us!

I am often asked by retreat guests and visitors when they come to HoneyRock, “What is your favorite winter activity here at camp?” We all have our favorites—for many it is broomball or tubing, but the immediate answer for me is always cross country skiing.  Not only is it good for you physically (as it is one of the best all body workouts) but it is also good for the soul.  When else can you leave “civilization” and head into the woods on a trail that takes you so deep in the forest, you feel as if you are the last person in the world?  With over 20 miles of groomed trails leading right from the middle of camp to the Nicolet National Forest and all around camp, and plenty of great equipment to choose from, it’s easy to escape to the stillness and quiet of the woods.  Oftentimes the only sound you hear is the ski crisply sliding back and forth along the grooved trail, but if you stop and just stand still, listening, the silence overwhelms you.  It’s alarmingly peaceful.  To be surrounded by God’s creation, to see pine trees covered in fresh, sparkly snow, to truly be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46), this is true beauty: where all seems at rest and all seems right.  God is loud in the silence of His creation.  Job declares the glory of God’s creation when he says in Job 26:7-10,
“He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
        he suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
       yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
      spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
      for a boundary between light and darkness.”

And of all this Job says in the end, that it is “but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” (vs. 14)  The beauty and glory of God’s creation is just the fringe of His works.  He is infinitely more than His works and His glory is infinitely more than His beautiful creation.  I get a glimpse of this while skiing through the deserted and refreshingly still forest. 

By: Robyn Walsh , Program Coordinator at HoneyRock