Day at the Zoo.

I went to the zoo yesterday. It had been awhile since my last visit, and I absolutely love it. I've been enthralled with animals ever since I was little. My big brother and I watched every animal show on television we could find, along with reading Zoobooks, collecting as many stuffed animal toys as we possibly could, and writing and illustrating stories spilling over with our furry, scaley, and feathery friends.

Though my animal-obsession has lessened over the years, animals still hold a very special place in my heart. There's just something about watching these creatures who are so different from us, yet live and move and breathe on this planet we both call home. And what's even more startling and beautiful, is the way they speak about the Creator who is theirs as well as ours.

Sometimes, I think the plants and animals and rocks do a better job of praising God than we do, with all our fancy words and extravagant shows. Walking into a church at random, I know there's a chance I might find God there. But set me on a mountaintop, with the sky stretching far up overhead, traced by the wingtips of an eagle whose scream sears the silence, and I know I will undoubtedly feel the Presence of God pressing down on me. No word needs to be spoken. Just standing, marveling in the midst of His creation, this fragile echo of Himself, and I know I will find Him there.

Human beings are a bit more complicated. Ironic, that the very creatures made in the image of God are often the ones who display it most poorly. Yet, there is something wonderful even in this. For the greater our weakness, the greater His glory.

That is why "creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God," (Romans 8:19-21).

Isn't it a beautiful story? Though we were fallen creatures, God has made us new. And now He calls us, through the power of His Spirit, to bring freedom to the world, that all of creation may worship Him together.