My wife and I had opportunity to spend a few days in Holland. We went to see the tulips, for which the Netherlands are world-renowned. We drove up with our bikes in tow – strapped on our carrier. The trip was pretty easy by US standards – only three and a half hours drive. My wife was kind enough to drive, which gave me time to enjoy the scenery and let my mind wander.
The Things You Notice
It can be surprising the things you notice. Even though the Netherlands is right next to Germany, there are noticeable differences in culture. It’s one of the wonders of Europe how so many different cultures and peoples could exist right next to each other for hundreds of years, yet maintain their cultural identities and differences. Italians, Swiss, French, Germans and Brits are all different from one another.
With the Dutch, I didn’t think the differences would be so telling. But they’re definitely there, particularly in traffic. The Dutch aren’t near as polite as German drivers. They seem much more like US drivers, frequently changing lanes, passing on the left and right as they cut through traffic. They seem much more in a hurry. Perhaps it was just the area we were in. Amsterdam is a major metropolis.
But it was also different when biking. Even here, everyone seemed in a hurry, passing one another without warning. Bike paths were shared with small motorcycles. It certainly made it more chaotic if not more dangerous. Biking is super popular in the Netherlands so it was surprising that they shared paths with motorcycles. Really surprising, no helmets! Definitely not like Germany where safety is first!
The Things Holland is Known For: Windmills & Tulips
Windmills
Perhaps the two things Holland is most known for, are tulips and windmills. What’s interesting about the windmills is their age. In Holland they date back to the thirteenth century. That’s pretty old. They were not only used to grind grain, but more importantly, they were used to drain the low lands to allow farming. Together with a system of dykes, Holland recovered much of its land from below sea level. They’re world experts at managing water and controlling floods.
I’ve heard all the barking about today’s windmills – how they’re “bird-killers”, what do you do when the wind doesn’t blow, how ugly they are. Funny how you never hear how old a technology it is, or how incredibly reliable it’s been. The Dutch were able to hold back ocean waters, tides and manage lands below sea level and you’d have to bet there were times in the last 800 years when the wind didn’t blow!
To appreciate the challenges the Dutch faced, one only needs to tour Amsterdam. The entire city is cut by a series of interconnected canals previously used for shipping. Homes were built on sandy soil by driving wooden piles up to twenty meters (65 feet) deep. And this was done 500 years ago!
The Tulips
As amazing (and crazy) as that is, a visit to Keuchenhof is a must. It has to be the largest and most diverse collection of tulips in the world. It’s really spectacular. There’s about 15km (9 miles) of walkways through endless tulip gardens – every color and pattern conceivable: large, small, short, tall, singles, doubles, lacey and straight pedaled. Believe it or not, there are over 3500 varieties globally and more a bred every year. And that’s just tulips!
The Marvel of God’s Creation and Our Failure to Protect It
It speaks to how incredible God’s creation is. The grand diversity, the robustness of life, it’s astounding. As an engineer, it’s easy to be impressed with many of the things we’ve developed. Splitting atoms, splicing DNA, our explorations of space, the marvel of electronics. But none of it comes close to God’s creation. Christ said it best:
27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” Luke 12
There is an awe and marvel in all that God has created, whether mountains, oceans, the heavens or the incredible variety of life in our world. Nothing rivals God’s creation. It is seemingly endless, yet everything works together perfectly – that is, until man is involved.
How is it that we who were given rulership over the earth and all its creatures (Genesis 1:26) have single-handedly done more damage to God’s creation than all the other species together? Given all the technologies we have, it’s hard to imagine we couldn’t do far more to protect God’s marvelous creation and all its creatures.
After all, didn’t God say, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” (Genesis 9:6). And this was said of accomplishments done without God’s help! It speaks to what we can accomplish through unity.
As Christians, we know that the curse of Babel – the confusion of language, has been removed in Christ. Thus, we should have perfect unity, restored at Pentecost when all those present heard in their language what was said (Acts 2:6). Unity had been restored through the work of the Spirit. Nothing should be able to stop us in efforts to glorify God by protecting His creation. In fact, were we not placed in a garden but told to fill the earth? Doesn’t that imply we must extend God’s paradisal garden until it fills the earth?
We are God’s Handiwork, the Pinnacle of His Creation
It’s not just God’s amazing creation of the cosmos, the earth and all its amazing life-forms. The pinnacle of creation is human-kind. The really cool part is God’s “creative” program for human-kind. He deeply desires to redeem as many as possible, unwilling that any would perish (2 Peter 3:9). Hence why He has exhibited such great patience despite the flood of evil in our world.
As every Christian knows, God gave all to redeem us, putting His Son Jesus on the cross to suffer a humiliating, excruciating death. But through His death came the creation of the church in which Paul says “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
Believers are a new creation in Christ, fashioned in Christ’s image – His handiwork! As every believer knows, new (spiritual) life has been created in us and we are now part of God’s new heaven and new earth. In fact, we are already citizens in the new Jerusalem!
This point is fundamental to our faith, so important that Scripture opens with creation of heaven and earth (Genesis 1) and closes with creation of a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21). Each creation is immediately followed by our placement in a garden paradise (Genesis 2 and Revelation 22). The entire corpus of Scripture moves from creation to new creation and from Eden to new Eden (paradise restored).
It’s so important there’s an entire section on creation/new creation and Eden/new Eden. There’s a lot there and the teachings run deep but you will be rewarded if you take the time to study these two redemptive themes.
Yes, as amazed as I am by God’s creation of tulips, the most amazing part of God’s creation is seeing people come to Christ, watching them grow spiritually, transformed by the “creative” power of God from hopeless sinner to faithful saint, from failed human in the image of Adam to a victorious saint in the image of the “last Adam”, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45). But best of all, I can’t wait for the day the Trumpet will sound and we will all be eyewitnesses to the greatest creation of all time, our own resurrection to eternal life!
Keep the faith . . . and if you find the time, it’s great to see the tulips!