Photo: Mountain as a symbol of God’s omnipotence; Gstaad, Switzerland, April 25, 2024.
Image Credit: Christine Muller
by Christine Muller
The beautiful month of May invites us to walk in nature and enjoy emerging green leaves, opening flower buds, and birds singing. The flourishing of nature helps us contemplate the words of Baha’u’llah:
Know thou that every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God.
(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh) www.bahai.org/r/899665484
When this profound statement sinks deep into our hearts, it can change how we look at each plant, animal, and human being. God’s creation is a mind-boggling miracle and leads us to intuitively feel the greatness of God, a recognition necessarily limited by our human understanding.
In a meditation, Bahá’u’lláh expresses how nature reminds Him of God’s greatness and increases His astonishment:
I am well aware, O my Lord, that I have been so carried away by the clear tokens of Thy loving-kindness, and so completely inebriated with the wine of Thine utterance, that whatever I behold I readily discover that it maketh Thee known unto me, and it remindeth me of Thy signs, and of Thy tokens, and of Thy testimonies. By Thy glory! Every time I lift up mine eyes unto Thy heaven, I call to mind Thy highness and Thy loftiness, and Thine incomparable glory and greatness; and every time I turn my gaze to Thine earth, I am made to recognize the evidences of Thy power and the tokens of Thy bounty. And when I behold the sea, I find that it speaketh to me of Thy majesty, and of the potency of Thy might, and of Thy sovereignty and Thy grandeur. And at whatever time I contemplate the mountains, I am led to discover the ensigns of Thy victory and the standards of Thine omnipotence.
I swear by Thy might, O Thou in Whose grasp are the reins of all mankind, and the destinies of the nations! I am so inflamed by my love for Thee, and so inebriated with the wine of Thy oneness, that I can hear from the whisper of the winds the sound of Thy glorification and praise, and can recognize in the murmur of the waters the voice that proclaimeth Thy virtues and Thine attributes, and can apprehend from the rustling of the leaves the mysteries that have been irrevocably ordained by Thee in Thy realm.
(Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh) www.bahai.org/r/468046957
Today, God’s creation is being violated. When we look at the sky, rainfall has become much more unpredictable and has diminished in regions that already suffer from water scarcity and drought, and when it rains, it often comes down in larger volumes that can cause flooding. When we look at the Earth, we find plastics and chemical pollution. The seas today only contain a small fraction of the abundance of fish compared to the time of Bahá’u’lláh, and the impressive white glaciers on mountains—symbols of God’s omnipotence—are disappearing. Climate change, the rapid loss of plants and animals, and pollution threaten the purity and beauty of nature, in which we can see the signs of the revelation of God. Moreover, they threaten the foundation of human civilization and all life on this planet. We have the moral and ethical responsibility to protect nature collectively as a society and with our actions.
