The Gift of God's Creation: Robert Dixon

This morning while pondering what to write about for this Harvest post I found inspiration in the weather. Yesterday, the temperature was in the low eighties during the hottest part of the day, and it is in the mid sixties today with a really cool breeze. The people that know me well will know that just about nothing excites me more than the cool fall weather. Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year, and a reprieve from the heat of the summer. It is also the time of year I feel I spend the most time with God.

This year I have started bow-hunting and hope to successfully harvest a deer with a bow by the end of the season. This goal has resulted in me spending more time in the woods than I have in the past, and I have been extremely thankful for it. I do most of my hunting on a piece of land I lease with my family, and it is one of the only things that I primarily do alone. I go out to one of many different locations with a stand, then I sit and observe from this stationary spot for hours. There are very few times outside of hunting that I spend that much time being still, which is a shame, because every time I am still I feel that God is close with me. Now, I will say that I obviously go to hunt with the goal of getting a deer. However, I also feel a draw to the stillness and closeness that I feel being enveloped in God’s creation. Being surrounded by creation keeps my mind on the Lord and not the various assignments and errands I could be doing instead. It allows my mind to be still. This year, as I have been sitting and praying in the stand, I have been reflecting on God’s gifts to me and being thankful for them. I believe that this has been on my mind because during our weekly worship services we have been doing a study on Genesis. A thought that I have been mulling over after these services is that creation exists because God wills it. This thought has caused me to realize just how many things I have been taking for granted. As I have been able to sit in the stand and ponder just a few of these infinite gifts, I have better realized God's love for me and his creation. 

God is a much better gift giver than I am. My best bet is hoping that whoever I am trying to get a gift for mentions something they want in conversation. Outside of that, I am not that confident in my ability to give things people will like. I hope that is something that I can get better at over time. God has no such trouble. One specific gift of God’s that I have been putting thought into recently is the gift of food. An original part of creation was the need for animals and for us humans to eat. Not only did we need to eat, but the food was pleasing to the eye and good to eat. We could have been created to draw energy from the sun like plants, or there may have been some other way for us to create energy, but I am thankful we were made to eat. Eating some good food is one of my favorite things to do. Eating is a way that we all physically interact with God's creation on a regular basis, and this interaction being a joyful one is no surprise to me. One of my personal joys of fall is the opportunity it gives for me to harvest food from its source rather than from a grocery store. It makes me feel more connected to my food, and in turn, to God who created it. Another reason I enjoy hunting so much is that I have to go into the woods to do it. It is much easier for me to recognize the gift that God's creation is when I am surrounded by trees. I find joy in every little interaction with creation – from seeing the tall grasses look like a soft blanket while they are still covered in the morning dew, to seeing an owl fly by and perch at the top of a dead tree observing the forest floor below. I always leave the woods thankful for the time that I was able to spend there and excited about all the things I witnessed there.

Robert Dixon (pictured here with girlfriend and former intern Bekah Beck) is a senior civil engineering student at Louisiana Tech, a member of this year’s Wesley Discipleship Team, and someone dear to our hearts. When not studying for class, you can find him listening to country music, playing guitar, fishing, hunting, and enjoying nature. He has a servant’s heart and a passion for competing with the interns and other students to take out the trash.