God’s Art Classic: “Amazed”- June 2008
A Christian Living Article from All-Creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

True Christian living requires us to live according to Kingdom standards which bring Heaven to earth.

FROM Pasquale R Mingarelli

I was in the Colorado high country when I spotted a small herd of bull elk. I pulled over, grabbed my camera and hopped out of the pickup. I foolishly thought I could hike up to them. They were less than a 50 yards away, but here above the tree line I found myself gasping for air every 10 steps up the slope. In the meantime the elk seem to take two or three effortless steps and walked further away from me. I thought to myself, Oh, forget it. I left the elk and found some marmots to photograph.

After a time of shooting the marmots, I looked up and saw that the elk had come down from the higher slope. I journeyed to their general area, sat down on a rock and began to photograph. As I waited patiently, one of the big bulls kept getting closer and closer to me as he grazed. Finally, he decided he was done and plopped his massive body down within 15 feet of me. Wow! This was the first close encounter I have had with a large bull elk and I was amazed.

Afterwards, when I looked at this photo and into the face of this great beast, I thought of a quote by the 19th century French scientist Louis Pasteur, “The more I study nature the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.” I was astonished by this bull elk as I sat on that rock in this alpine meadow of Rocky Mountain National Park. They can weigh 1,100 lbs and stand over six feet, not including the rack. I think if Pasteur had encountered such a beast he would have been “amazed.”

There is debate as to whether Pasteur was a Christian or not, but it is clear that he did not believe in Darwin’s evolution. He said of Darwin, “Do not put forward anything that you cannot prove by experimentation.” Like scientists today who go against current scientific thought on issue like global warming and evolution, Pasteur was shunned from the scientific community of his day because he had an idea that went a against the flow of contemporaries. His radical thought was that life cannot come from no life. Life must come from life and things like maggots just do not emerge out of rotting flesh. He proved his theory through his experiments, which resulted in what we now call the pasteurization process that life can only come from life. His theory that went against the flow dramatically improved life around the world.

Go against the flow and you’ll may be amazed!

Go on to: God’s Art: “By their Fruits”
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