Pandas in Chengdu (2012)

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (also known as the Chengdu Panda Base). Aside from being far more taken by the Giant Pandas than I thought I would be, I was extremely interested in a most unexpected giant signboard that I found prominently displayed in the grounds of the Panda Base.

I wonder how many of the visitors to the Panda Base realise that Cecil Frances Alexander was an Irish hymn-writer of the 19th century who was married to an Anglican clergyman. Her song “All Things Bright and Beautiful” is one of the most well-known Christian hymns for children. The three lines in the signboard above come from the chorus of the song. Notice the comma after the word “wonderful” above? That’s because there is just a little bit more to the chorus of the song. Here is the chorus in full:

“All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.”

As I walked by that signboard and silently added the final line to the chorus in my head, I was once again reminded that indeed “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1).

Young and very playful panda cubs:

   

     

This one looks like he's posing!

   

Happy after a meal?

     

I had no idea this is how pandas sleep.

Kew Gardens (2011)

“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you …”  (Luke 12:27-28)

Luke 12:27-28 could not be clearer. God created flowers, and He meant them to be breathtakingly beautiful. And when we look at them, we are meant to be reminded that if God cares enough to clothe a plant in this way, then He certainly has in store far more blessings for us. These are some of the pictures from my visit to London’s Kew Gardens in July 2011.

 

In the beautiful Water Lily House of Kew Gardens - Kew's Stowaway Blues Nymphaea (2011)

     

Another beauty from Kew's Water Lily House (2011)

            

Passiflower, Kew Gardens (2011)

        

Heuchera (Marmalade)

   

Cup and Saucer Plant, Kew Gardens (2011)

    

Hibiscus Punaluuensis, Kew Gardens (2011)

Flowers – God’s amazing handiwork

“[S]ince the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made …” (Romans 1:20)

In June / July 2010, I did something that I had never done before. I was flying to London for an academic conference, and decided that I would stay on in the UK for a couple of weeks with the express purpose of spending time with God. As part of my attempts to slow down and draw closer to Him, I took to spending long hours in a number of different parks and gardens. It was while I was wandering about in the midst of thousands of intricately-formed flowers that I began to appreciate the truth of Romans 1:20. God really has laid it all out in plain sight for us to see. His eternal power, His divine nature, His creativity, His infinite ability to do far more than we could ever ask or imagine — all these are displayed right before our eyes, if only we take the time to look.

I am posting some of my favourite snaps from that summer, from Regent’s Park and Queen Mary’s Rose Garden (London), Winterbourne Botanical Gardens (University of Birmingham) … and one from some Londoner’s garden. 

     

Yellow Tiger Lilies, Winterbourne Botanical Gardens - I've come to feel that if we look at a flower through eyes searching for a Designer, it's not difficult to find evidence for one.

    

Winterbourne Botanical Gardens - Columbines are amazing, and I love their design.

     

Love the simplicity of daisies

       

Winterbourne Botanical Gardens - a little burst of sunshine

          

Winterbourne Botanical Gardens - beauty in prickly places

        

Fulton Mackay Rose, Queen Mary's Rose Garden (London)

       

Nostalgia Rose Bud, Queen Mary's Rose Garden (London)

   

It was a very sunny day when I walked through Regent's Park, and all the Nostalgia roses looked like they were lit from within.

        

Tintinara rose plant flooded with roses

      

Passiflower - This is something that I saw walking along the road in the Bayswater area of London. Since then, I've seen more Passiflowers, and I will never cease to be amazed at the intricacy of their design. I could never have conjured up a flower like this if I tried.

         

“Every time we look at something built by man – a house, for example – we know it had a builder, someone who assembled it. When we see something that has design, like a watch, we know it had a designer who planned it. When we see artwork, like a painting, we know there is an artist who painted it. When we observe order – say twenty Coke cups lined up in a row – we know there was an “orderer” who set them up that way.

When we look around the universe at things not made by man, what do we see? We see creation, design, art, and order. So if everything man-made has a creator, designer, artist, or orderer behind it, why would we not think that there is a Creator, Designer, Artist, and Orderer behind the universe?”

Mark Cahill, One Heartbeat Away: Your Journey into Eternity (BDP Publishing, 2007), pp. 15-16.

     

The River Shannon

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17: 7-8)

I went for a conference at the University of Limerick, Ireland, in June 2011. The conference accommodation was at the Cappavilla Student Village, which was quite a walk from the place where all the paper sessions were held. The one good thing, however, about the long walk we all had to do each day was crossing the beautiful Living Bridge (the longest pedestrian bridge in Ireland), which had been built across the River Shannon. I will never tire of the view from that bridge. How amazing it is for the people who work and study at the University of Limerick that the mighty River Shannon flows right through the campus! Every time I crossed the bridge and saw the lush green of the trees and plants by the river’s edge, I thought of the verses in Jeremiah 17.

River Shannon, taken from the Living Bridge at the University of Limerick (2011)

Hampstead Heath Pigeon

“And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:20-21)

Something happens when we really take to heart the fact that God is the divine Creator of all the creatures on this earth. We start to look at them differently, to appreciate the ways in which each creature is so wonderfully and specially created in order to function in the way it needs to. I’ve come to find birds rather fascinating, though I find them very hard to photograph with the little autofocus camera that I use. They tend to fly away (or at me) when I get too close. This photograph was taken on Hampstead Heath, London, in July 2011.

Just one of the many pigeons on Hampstead Heath