JASON GRAY TALKS ABOUT THE ‘TAKING CARE OF CREATION’ PROJECT A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH AND HIS SONG AWESTRUCK
Photo above by Dough4872 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106899884
Wow, look at those mountains. Look more closely at all those trees on them. Yeah but, look at all these big rocks – RIGHT HERE! If you were at the Forest Canyon Overlook in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado with a friend, that might be your conversation. It’s big. Well actually “big” doesn’t do it justice. It’s beyond expansive. Like even the best panoramic camera can’t really capture it all. When you see the beauty of creation like this it’ll leave you awestruck.
For musician Jason Gray that beauty, and the God that it points to, are both so profound they inspired him to write the song, Awestruck, for the project A New Heaven And A New Earth. In Jason’s conversation with Brad Bloom, Publisher of Shout! OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE he explains:
In the beauty and the majesty of the mountains it is all very intoxicating and overwhelming. I gain perspective in all that vast beauty that can make me feel small. It also makes all the things I’m worried about seem smaller too. While I feel small and those things diminish, at the same time I feel very seen by God and sense his love. It’s a weird paradox, right? I feel small and insignificant and [yet] seen and special – all at the same time.
THERE’S HEALING IN THAT BEAUTY
In some of Jason’s own research he’s learned that trauma recovery programs often prescribe the outdoors as part of the healing solution. He says:
These programs include activities where people go out into the beauty of nature and they hike or climb. Beauty in and of itself has a way of bringing healing.
He notes that people sense the therapeutic nature of nature. They, like all of us, are awestruck. So, when you’re outside it’s important to realize that dynamic is at play and be prepared to help people in their healing by helping them see and consider connections between their sense of wonder and a wondrous God. While creation care is about caring for the planet, it is especially about caring for and ministering healing to God’s human creation. The deeper and transformative heeling people want isn’t found in God’s creation – it’s found in God. Nature is therapeutic. God’s nature brings restoration and life.
The whole of the story that we have in scripture is more about engagement and infiltration and redeeming. Living by faith in Christ isn’t just about being saved from your sin. The Christian calling certainly isn’t about just waiting for eternal life in heaven. It’s about praying as Christ instructed, “On earth as it is in heaven”. That’s not just a good prayer to pray in a church service, it’s a lifestyle. It’s a an attentiveness to God and a humble yet eager willingness to be led by God’s Spirit and be the life of Christ everywhere among everyone. Use the time you have here on earth right now for God. Jason says, that’s the most life-giving, God-honoring way to conduct yourself in the here and now.
ABOUT A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH
The multi-artist A New Heaven And A New Earth project is a full-length album released in the summer of 2024 that celebrates the beauty of God’s Creation and calls believers to be faithful stewards of earth. It is also bringing recording artists and conservationists together on common ground, each seeing the beauty of the other. More than an album, it’s a conversation.
There has never been a project like this, where a diverse group of well-known Christian musicians wrote and recorded a song on how taking care of Creation is to glorify God. Each artist felt called to the project and has a unique story to tell about why they joined and wrote their song.
To date, eight songs have been released from the project representing a diverse set of rock, pop, hip hop, R&B, indie, folk/ Americana and more musical genres. These songs include: GRAMMY®-nominated, Dove Award-winning Building 429 lead vocalist Jason Roy’s “It’s All Yours;” iconic singer/songwriter Phil Joel’s “Arms Around The World;” recording artist, actress and producer MŌRIAH’s “You Mean The World;” Dove Awards-winning, No.1 Billboard-charting, Stellar Award-nominated Aaron Cole’s “Together;” chart-topping recording artist and songwriter Micah Tyler’s “So Will I;” husband and wife duo, Don and Lori Chaffer of Waterdeep’s “Into the Unseen;” Jason Gray’s “Awestruck
For the song Awestruck and all the music, many more videos, social media and links to artist websites go to the official website for A New Heaven And A New Earth.
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