| Eye Candy - article by Joel Hempel Have you noticed – I’m sure you have – how God has been painting the trees such beautiful colors? I know some would say credit belongs to Mother Nature. But “Mother” would not have the artistic talent of Bob Ross if it were not for our gracious and generous God, the Creator. I realize there is science behind what God is doing in his creation. And he is okay with science offering an explanation for when, why, and how the trees change colors. After all, he is the one who embedded the science into the foliage and minds of botanists, horticulturists, and arborists. But these natural scientists can only offer a partial explanation for the beauty that surrounds us this time of year. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible (Hebrews 11:3). Do you think God likes color, or is he a black-and-white God? Do you think God likes beauty, or is he only into plain and boring? Do you think God likes variety or is he invested only in sameness? I just started reading a book titled The Grace of God. Like you, I’m a big believer in grace. Like you, I know I could not and would not survive without God’s grace – especially God’s grace bestowed on us through the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But except for the prophetic verse in Genesis 3:15, I never before thought much about the grace God invested in creation. Whether you think of yourself as a creationist, an evolutionary creationist, or something else, what we all have been given – light and darkness, warmth and cold, vegetation and animals to feed and delight us, man and woman, and so much more – has all been created and given out of God’s grace. After this deep frost, when our gardens begin to die, when the colorful leaves have fallen to the ground, and what remains is skeletal in much of nature, it can be a greater challenge to see God’s grace. But anyone who knows the basics of botany knows the incredible and complex science that God’s grace has built into nature. Like you, I’m a big fan of nature’s eye candy. And like many of you, any trip into nature – or just looking out our windows – increases our love of God as we behold his grace. 1. The Grace of God, Andy Stanley, 2010, Thomas Nelson, Publisher. | 
