The green anole’s natural color is green, but it is enough related to the chameleon that its color changes with its immediate surroundings. One morning I walked by a rose bush in my back yard and saw a small green anole spread-eagle on a rose leaf in the sunlight. What surprised me was that the very small lizard wasn’t green, like the leaf, but entirely brown. I was puzzled about it until I learned that the anoles sometimes sunbathe, and when they do, they turn brown until they return to a green leaf in a shady place. I felt as if I had discovered a unique phenomenon, and the world of nature glowed in my mind like a gem. I continued to stare at the small creature and marvel at what I was seeing. I felt as I imagined Adam felt at observing for the first time the animals God had created.

Since 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, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

In the Old Testament God enlists His natural creations in revealing truth to human beings. When Jonah was whining about the worm provided by God, (Jonah4:7) that destroyed the plant that God had provided for Jonah’s comfort, Jonah learned about the character of God.: You pity the plant. . . and should I not pity Nineveh. . . ? (Jonah 4:11)

Most of us love and appreciate at least some of the natural world, and even see it as a gift. It was a gift to Jonah, but God wanted him to see more than his own comfort in God’s creation. When St. Paul wrote that we have no excuse for disbelieving, he saw in nature the outline of God’s own presence. When we watch a spectacular sunset, or a placid lake by moonlight and we never think of the creator of these, we have no excuse, for we share the same creator. Even before He sent the rainbow, God intended us to remember Him in nature, and made it a covenant with all people. The green anole carried a miniature message to me of the wonder of God’s work, and the need to pay closer attention to His presence in our world.

King David wrote: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have put in place. . . “Lord, Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Love in Him,

Prue