Don’t Worship God’s Creation
I Reland’s first humans appeared there some ten thousand years ago.
A few thousand years later, their descendants honored their dead by building massive stone tombs, many of them prominently placed on hilltops or other sacred places.
Newgrange is the most impressive of Ireland’s hundreds of huge tombs. It is older than England’s Stonehenge, and people celebrate it as one of the world’s most amazing monuments.
A passageway leads to the center of a huge dirt mound and opens into a cross-shaped chamber area.
During the winter solstice, the rising sun sends shafts of bright light streaming into the tomb through a small opening above the door, illuminating both the passageway and the inner burial chamber with a brilliant warm glow.
This stunning light show lasts only seventeen minutes of one day every year.
While we don’t know for certain the intent of the ancient builders of Newgrange, many believe that the tomb reveals how deeply those ancient people cared for the souls of the departed and revered the role of the sun in their lives.
I’ve gone into such detail here to illustrate the importance of nature to past civilizations.
Deuteronomy 4:19, along with these ruins, attests to the powerful presence of God’s creation.
Spirituality today has once again embraced fascination with God’s creation, but it often fails to acknowledge God as Creator.
Alternative and New Age stores and catalogs entice customers to buy a wide range of goodies adorned with the sun, moon, and stars. Pagan spirituality includes ceremonies performed to the wonders of nature.
But God intended his creation to reflect him, not replace him.
We need not fear enjoying God’s creation or admiring people’s monuments, but we must remember that anything other than God himself is not to be an object of worship.
Father, help us to enjoy fully the beauty you have created. Help us to be in awe of the wonders of your hand. At the same time, keeps us from adoring the work of the Creator instead of the Creator himself.