God and Nature Fall 2020
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By Cheryl Grey Bostrom
If blades of timothy and rye
Were made of flesh and bone,
And orchard grass and clover green
Were my own form, full grown,
Would I dare cheer the mower sharp
As round the field it came
To drop me groundward at my knees,
My willfulness to tame?
And would I welcome ted and rake
To cure me in the heat,
Before the baler packed me tight
And bound me, winter’s feed?
Or would I resist sacrifice,
Ignore the hungry, poor,
To wave in autumn’s windy chill,
Then shrink to soil’s store?
Were made of flesh and bone,
And orchard grass and clover green
Were my own form, full grown,
Would I dare cheer the mower sharp
As round the field it came
To drop me groundward at my knees,
My willfulness to tame?
And would I welcome ted and rake
To cure me in the heat,
Before the baler packed me tight
And bound me, winter’s feed?
Or would I resist sacrifice,
Ignore the hungry, poor,
To wave in autumn’s windy chill,
Then shrink to soil’s store?
“The LORD is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
The wind blows, and we are gone--
as though we had never been here.
But the love of the LORD remains forever
with those who fear him.”
—Psalm 103:13-17
Cheryl Grey Bostrom is a Pacific Northwest naturalist, amateur photographer, and award-winning author who delights in the ways God speaks through His creation. In her weekly posts/photos at https://cherylbostrom.com (Watching Nature, Seeing Life) and in her devotional book The View from Goose Ridge, she captures surprising and beautiful ways He does—and plants readers in their midst.