Knowing God through a feather

I am sitting outside trying to prepare my lesson for tomorrow’s online French class that I teach (check out CBB+ if you’re interested!), but it’s been tough.

Not only is it a cool, lazy morning, but I am too busy watching my younger school-aged children sketch in their nature journals the feather of a hawk that is likely from the impudent rascal who flew off with one of our chicks earlier in the week. 

We’ve always encouraged our children to enjoy nature around them. That has looked drastically different since we started having children nearly 20 years ago. Time in the South become years in the Northwest, which switched to a short stint in Asia then back to the South. Our southern excursions also have varied among three states with greatly varied topographies.

I’ve no problem telling my children to go spend time outside, find something new (or not so new), sketch it and get a better idea of what it is. The book learning, of which we do plenty with our children, feels important, but still only secondary to knowing the world around them.

Knowing God through a feather

As a Christ follower, my main responsibility as a father is to help them know God, to direct them toward Him so that as they hopefully grow in faith, it will be easier and easier to know His will in their lives and the obedience to His call that He requires.

God promises us that one of the best ways to know Him is to know His creation (Romans 1:20). It’s an incredible world that He’s created, and through my pastoral teaching, I’ve been blessed to travel through a fair, yet still small, part of it, always amazed at the way people live and the places they call home.

I’m never dulled to seeing new wildlife, and some places where I travel frequently, I relish the time spent in more natural settings than I can sometimes find at home. Everywhere I go, it’s easy to see God’s kingdom, and His glory, at work.

As my children have grown, they’ve traveled with me, also experiencing the huge world that God created for us to explore and enjoy, bringing with us a little bit of knowledge about who He is to people groups that barely know Him.

Knowing God through a feather

But this love of travel, this love of being in strange environments, this love of the world around them all started with quick jaunts searching for a sow bug or beetle in the backyard garden or watching the black-capped chickadees line up their approach to the window feeder as if it were the busiest airport in the world. It’s been these opportunities more than anything that have helped them know who they are and how they came to be.

There’s enough nature everywhere, even in an apartment dweller’s tiny enclave, to entice a child to know that the world is a much bigger place than he or she can possibly understand, but to also trust that covering it all is a great God who loves us enough to share His world with us. Even the potted plant on the windowsill is teeming with life and creation.

Spending an hour or two a few days a week (maybe even more!) exploring a child’s own back yard should be part of any homeschooling family’s curriculum. Throwing a nature journal into the mix gives them time to study and appreciate the treasures before them. There’ll be time enough for book learning later.

Sadly, the nature journal we’ve come to appreciate the most is no longer in print, but there are plenty of options out there. Here’s a quick look at some of what is available at Amazon. Purchases made through these affiliate links support our family’s work in spreading the Gospel around the globe. Thank you!