St. Augustine commenting on Romans 1:19-20 echoes St. Paul’s claim that nature itself is a witness to God and God’s love for His creation. Augustine writes:
“How did they know God? From the things that God made.
Ask the beauty of the earth;
ask the beauty of the sea;
ask the beauty of the swelling, spreading air;
ask the beauty of the heavens;
ask the order of the stars;
ask the sun illumining the day with its brightness;
ask the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its splendor;
ask the living things moving in the waters,
moving on the earth,
flying in the air;
ask their observable bodies and hidden souls, the visible guided and the invisible guiding things.
Question these, and they will all answer you: “Behold, we are beautiful.”
Their beauty is itself their confession.
Who made all these beautiful, changing things, then, if not the one who is unchangeably beautiful?”
( St. Augustine in Romans: Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators, ed. J. Patout Burns Jr., Kindle Loc. 822-26)
See also In Praise of God our Creator and Chrysostom: Creation’s Witness to God
You can find links to all my photo blogs at My Photo Blogs.
Fraternized 