Why is grass green? (Or The Pleasure of God in His wise creations)

How many are your works, O LORD!

In wisdom you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures. (Psalm 104:24)

If one day you were walking along a path, and all of a sudden you notice something strange about the field next to you. The grass is blue. What would you think? I guess it would be: "Wow, amazing how the grass is blue!" or "Wah, how come got blue grass one?!" Something to that effect.

But think about this. Why is grass green in the first place? There's no logical reason for it. It's not like 2+2=4: we can see that this is a necessary thing. But why is grass green? It does not have to be, but God made it so.

And today we have taken it for granted. We have forgotten the sense of wonder that we used to have. Look at babies. Mere life is interesting to them. The fact that I have two legs and five toes on each of them - wow! What a joy! The fact that different things feel so different, look so different, and smell so different, and taste so different! Look at the sparkling eyes of a child - they shine because of wonder and delight in life itself. They do not take things for granted.

God was wise to make grass green, to give it that particular smell when freshly cut, and to give it that little shine off each blade. It doesn't have to be like this. What is colour anyway? Why make the world in a thousand different shades and nuances, blends and tones? Oh, that poignant sunset of red, gold and countless shades matching between, that glorious sunrise of yellow dawn, the azure, blue sky and fluffy white clouds floating by. The shimmering face of water, a million sparkles of reflection, the good brown soil and the great green trees that tower beside.

Or think of the roar of a lion, the crashing of waves, the chirping of a bird, the excited bark of a dog, the shattering of thunder, the whistling of the wind, the richness of a baritone singing, the grace of a soprano, the soothing words of comfort, the giggles of a child, the whispers of a close friend, the sigh of a loved one. What if there were no sounds at all? What if everything sounded the same? What then, of your favorite music, of your friends' laughter, even the sound of the tap dripping?

Think of your favorite food, ah - the hot and spicy, the sour and tangy, the salty and sweet, the bitter and vinegary, the luscious and the succulent, the creamy and the smooth - ahhhh. What would life be without taste? The crisp bite into a fried chicken wing, that crunchy munch into a potato chips, the simple fragrance of rice, the juicy watermelon - have we taken all these for granted? What a wonder that these things should even exist!

And we haven't even mentioned touch and smells... come up with your own examples... But lose not your wonder. May God grant us the eyes of a child, that we may delight in the manifold wisdom displayed in His creation.

But is enjoying created things idolatry? Not if we enjoy it because of God. Enjoy it, and glorify God by enjoying His wisdom in the universe, His power in the storm, His creativity in millions of plants and animals, His artistry in the human form, His goodness in providence in nature, His sustenance in natural laws, and ultimately His glory in all. See beyond nature to the Creator of nature. And never cease to wonder at the greatness of such a God.

Biologists spend whole lives trying to understand how a cell works, taxonomists scratch their heads over how to classify the vast variety of created things, chemists marvel over the patterns and connections of molecular structures, physicists blow their minds on the sublime activity of the subatomic realm, philosophers argue endlessly over the relation of the body to the mind, psychologists struggle to comprehend the individual, cosmologists discover vast regions of space and marvellous galaxies further than our mind can conceive, and artists and poets die trying to capture the beauty that the world displays. How little of creation we understand after thousands of years.

Be any of these if you want, but more importantly, know the One from whom all good things come forth. For if you choose to set your eyes only on the world, soon it will be dull and unsatisfying, and like Darwin, you'll wonder where your wonder went. But delight, above all, in God, seek Him, and you shall enjoy even the things He gives. That's the way it works, and may God help us daily.