more on looking at vrs. in, seeing, and metaphor

If we don't know how to read, we can only look at words-pretty shapes of black on white. But when we know how to read, we see through them to their meanings.

So with the book of nature. In modern times, we don't even know that nature is a book where things are written, so we weren't even looking, let alone reading.

Because nature, creation, is a thing spoken into existence, it is something that speaks. It was made by the Word, spoken by the Father, breathed out by the Holy Spirit/Breath/Wind. Creation speaks and can be read (Psalm 19).

This means that literary concepts and ways of thinking (like metaphor, analogy, and symbol etc) are natural to nature. They are there in the things of nature and in the nature of things.

So the things of this world will endure and satisfy a great deal of seeing and looking (unlike modern architecture, which stopped imitating nature). There is intricacy and detail. Like a good painting, you can let your eyes dwell on it for a long time. Like a good book, it invites your eyes to dive deep into it. It isn't flat. You can look through it and into it.

Trees and skies are like good paintings, they invite a way of seeing that is different from how a machine sees. They invite us to look into them and through them. They invite us to listen to what they say.