As Earth Day approaches...

People I work with assume that I have always been an outdoorsy person.

However, it wasn't very long ago that I was much more concerned with looking cute for my boyfriend while ice fishing than I was with doing any fishing. I didn't want to wear warm socks and boots to hike in cool weather because it wasn't "hot."

A couple of things have changed my outlook on spending time outside. The first was when my husband told me, "You are much cuter when you're not complaining about being cold than when you are cold and trying to look cute." The second was when I started working for a conservation board.

Spending time outside with my husband, and actually being comfortable while doing it, and learning about nature has increased my love of the outdoors by the umpteenth factor.

That love of the outdoors grew when I started to see that every little thing a honeybee does has a purpose, from the chains they make with their bodies to plan their honeycomb to the flapping of their wings that creates a vacuum to help dry down their honey. The world in its minutia is amazing.

My love of the outdoors grew when we first went on a truly outdoorsy vacation to Utah, and I hiked for the first time. It was a strength-building challenge for our marriage (see my blog about Bryce Canyon), but I found a sense of accomplishment in completing a goal and seeing the beauty of what the world had to offer.

My love of the outdoors has also grown as we have worked on our land. Yes, my parents made me pick up sticks and help garden when I was growing up. However, that was nothing compared to the work of cutting down a tree and chopping wood. The hard, sweaty days we have put into our land have continuously left us with a sense of accomplishment, and the nights spent around fires and in the tent listening to raccoons curiously sniff us has made us happy and relaxed.

With my love of the outdoors has grown my love of our great creator. Some people claim that the more you know about science, the less you can believe in God. I have found the exact opposite to be true. The more I learn about the world and experience nature, the more I can't help but see the creator behind the creation.

I simply can't believe that a monarch butterfly caterpillar evolved to grow 1,800 times larger in only four weeks before going into a hard-sided chrysalis to basically liquify and change into a butterfly. The fact that it tastes with its feet to know it is on milkweed so it can lay its egg, because its caterpillar can only eat milkweed, the fact that it can sense the earth's magnetic poles with its antenna so it can find its way south, the fact that its biology changes in the fall so those overwintering are different genetically and live six months as opposed to six weeks --- that can't all be coincidence.

There is a creator behind our world.

And that doesn't lessen nature, it makes it so much better.

When I see the world, I immediately think, "Thank you Lord for creating this moment. Thank you for creating the beauty before me. You are such a huge God."

What would I thank if I didn't believe? It's a gift to be able to thank someone bigger than yourself, someone so huge that a black hole billions of miles away is small to him.

So as we come up to Earth Day and Easter, it seems appropriate that the two are only a day apart. Our God cared so much for us, for this earth that he created, that he sent his only son to become a human, to die for our sins and to rise again so that we can accept his gift of life and live with him forever.

Thank you God that you are so big, so creative, so generous, so graceful.