So, we went camping this past week at Shaver Lake
I don’t really even know what this post is about, really. I don’t know that what I want to say has any importance whatsoever. But I’m gonna say it anyway. That’s what having a blog is all about, right?
So, we go camping. When we go camping, we usually go to a different place every day. Some of these are new places—others are places we go to every year. One of these places is called Dinky Creek. Don’t laugh at the name. It’s an awesome place, really rocky, and most years the smooth rock on the riverbed forms natural waterslides. Every year, when we go there, I go exploring upstream by myself, jumping from rock to rock when I can, walking along the river when I can’t. It’s always a pretty cool experience, because I never see anybody else once I’ve been going upstream for about 5 minutes. It’s just me jumping from rock to rock and running along the bank. This year was a little different. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I’ve been re-reading The Lord of the Rings, but as I was jumping and running and walking along the stream, I found myself kind of murmuring/humming bits and pieces of Tom Bombadil’s songs. And I did feel like Tom Bombadil. I don’t know why. But just now, I realized what I want to say in this post. It’s very simple, but it’s something I think about frequently. And it relates to Tom Bombadil.
Who is Tomb Bombadil? He is master. He is the lord over the land. He appreciates and loves nature (see him carrying water lilies for Goldberry), but he also controls nature, by force if necessary (see him subduing Old Man Willow). As I was writing the previous paragraphs, I was thinking about Tom Bombadil skipping along his path, singing his nonsensical, joyful song, and I was thinking of how I felt, running and jumping along the river, and I thought… nature is fallen. But sometimes Nature remembers when it was unfallen and pure and good, meant for us to enjoy and nurture, and also to rule. I thought of Tom Bombadil, and I thought of Adam, before the fall, and then I thought of us. We are fallen, as is Nature (although I sometimes think nature is not quite so fallen as we are). And here’s something else I just realized—it is our fault that nature is fallen.
When Adam sinned, he not only cursed himself, but creation as well. In Genesis, God tells Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you.” The earth did not originally bring forth thorns and thistles, scratching our skin and choking our plants—these are results of the fall, of our own sin. But just as creation was cursed because of the first Adam, it will be redeemed by the second Adam—Christ.
I was researching for this note, and I stumbled upon Romans 8. I’ve read it before, but I cannot believe that I didn’t remember this part, it’s so crazy-awesome. Check this out: “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:19-21. Creation is not just a completely inanimate…thing here. I can’t think of the right words to say what I want to say, but… Creation itself is eagerly awaiting the day when it is set free from it’s bonds of death and decay. When we are renewed, so will creation be renewed. We will once again be the pure stewards of a pure creation. And I don’t think it’s that unlikely that, on the new earth, and under the new heavens, we might run beside clear streams, under green trees, and hear creation itself praising its creator.
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