Rachel Dickinson’s article (“At Land’s End,” July/August Atlantic) caught my eye because of the author’s obvious appreciation for the beauty – and mystery – of nature. I wonder if Dickinson realizes what a grand, theological truth to which she has alluded in the last portion of her writing. As a person with a Biblical Christian worldview, I was genuinely excited by Dickinson’s indirect and – most possibly – completely unintended observation of a timeless metanarrative.
Dickinson details her thoughts on a foggy morning in the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula, “I thought about the cranes in their balletic flight, and the ravens pecking away at the whale carcass, and how the beauty and desolation of the Russian Far East converges in this spot on the tundra, at the edge of the frigid Bering Sea.” Amazing! The beauty of cranes meeting in air and flying in tandem juxtaposed against the eerie reminder of death and destruction as ravens devour a whale’s remains. The magnificence of just one aspect of this profound creation – those amazing creatures of flight – converges, as Dickinson says, with the dismal result of humankind’s rebellion against the Creator – disintegration and death.
In this world we do observe quite simultaneously two Biblical truths: God made everything good (Genesis 1:31), and human sin against His plan brought ruination (Romans 6:23). The majesty, intricacy, and unfathomable beauty of the created world hints at the perfection God intended and will – one day – dramatically restore (II Peter 3:10-13). At the very same time, the imperfection, dissatisfaction, and disaster we so often witness hints at the severity of broken relationship with the Creator and a need to regain what is right and good.
As Dickinson amazingly reminded us of this convergence of beauty and destruction in any given moment, may we recall the answer to the dilemma lies in the convergence of two other seemingly diametrically opposed concepts: God and Man in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9). This divine convergence in the Person of Jesus is our salvation – our hope for life and beauty to win out in the end.