would we suffer in spirit if we lost nature ?

Knowing God Through Nature• To describe how God can be

experienced through nature• To explain what we can

learn about God from nature

• To evaluate the importance of nature as a way of knowing God

Why do we find nature “awesome”? What is so amazing about it?

Look at the following slides, and consider what makes nature

awesome.

1. Mindmap the ways that nature is “awesome”2. Which aspect of nature impresses you the most?

Why?3. How could nature help you to “know God”?

Endless satisfaction of nature – doesn’t get boring

Amazing designs of creatures & living things

Sheer size & scale eg mountain ranges, blue whales

Beauty of nature

Peace of nature, rest to the spirit

Way nature interacts

The way each organism knows what it is about

Wisdom 13:1-9Anyone who does not know God is simply foolish. Such people look at the good things around them and still fail to see the living God.

They have studied the things he made, but they have not recognized the one who made them. Some people were so delighted with the beauty of these things that they thought these objects must themselves be gods, but they should have realized that these things have a master and that He is much greater than all of them, for He is the creator of beauty, and he created them.

But maybe we are too harsh with these people. After all, they may have really wanted to find God, but couldn't. But still, these people really have no excuse. If they had enough intelligence to investigate the universe scientifically, why did they never find the Lord of all things?

1. Why does the writer think that some people who look at nature are “foolish”?• What mistake have these