God Speaks Through Nature: Signs, Coincidence, and Discernment

If you have eyes to see, nature becomes a second kind of scripture, the book of creation, sitting open in front of you and you can feel it tugging at your spirit. This is a look at the Spirit's voice through nature, signs, synchronicity, coincidence and the craft of discernment. You’ll find a simple outdoor contemplation practice, a method for testing what a moment might be inviting and prompts to take into spiritual direction when you want help with the listening.

How does God speak to you?

For you, is it general revelation through sacred texts? Through prayer? Inspiring stories? What about through nature? The sound of a stream, the appearance of a rabbit, a flock of starlings or yarrow growing in abundance *.

Most people can describe transcendent moments, awe in nature where they feel connected to a sense of something bigger than themselves ... but occasionally you may feel addressed somehow, the moment is expressing something, you've stumbled across a spiritual sign.

If it's happened to you, you're not alone. Many sages, mystics, poets and pilgrims would say that nature is a vibrant source of Divine hints, nods and pointers; signs, omens and augurs. To those inclined to limit revelation to old books, I'd point out that one of the most practised natural theologian was Jesus, who regularly used the natural world as a teaching surface: seeds, birds, storms, vines, bread, fish, weather, lilies. Two books of theology.

Discover a thin place; connect with nature and you're on sacred ground, you're in a sacred text **.

What does God say?

Do you get clear answers to questions you've been mulling over? Do you get seemingly random messages you weren't expecting? Or maybe just a vague sense of something. It's one thing to look for meaning from sacred texts but nature is trickier; it requires the discernment of spirits.

Sheep that have swapped heads – what does it mean?

God speaks through nature, but humans are brilliant at making things up

There are unhelpful ways to read nature and history has plenty of them. A classic example is using a disaster to declare judgement on people you already dislike. That is not really discernment; it's more like ideology with confirmation bias.

There’s also a subtler failure mode: treating “signs” as a shortcut around fear and responsibility. “The universe told me…” can become a way of not doing the harder work of ownership.

So, yes to noticing. Also, yes to caution.

What counts as a “sign”, in a grounded sense?

Try this definition: a sign is anything that catches your attention in a way that feels charged and draws you toward deeper reality (that doesn't contradict the primacy of love, heartfulness and kindness). A tap on the shoulder that says, “slow down, look again”.

Three ways to work with what you notice

When something in the book of nature hooks you, you can explore it through three lenses.

1. The literal lens What is it, actually? What’s happening in the real world? Name it plainly. If it’s a buzzard, it’s a buzzard. If it’s dew, it’s dew.

2. The metaphor lens What does it resemble in your life right now? Not as a forced symbol, more as an honest association. “This feels like…” is enough.

3. The invitation lens If there’s a nudge here, what is it inviting you toward? Patience, courage, grief, gratitude, letting go, paying attention, telling the truth?

You don’t need to claim certainty. You’re listening, not issuing press releases on behalf of God.

A simple practice: notice, then stay with it

If you want a practice that’s simple enough to actually do, here it is.

1. Go for a short walk.

2. Ask, quietly, for awareness and presence.

3. Notice what draws you, what irritates you, what moves you, what makes you stop.

4. When something catches you, pause and stay with it.

5. Later, write three sentences:

   • What I noticed.

   • What it stirred in me.

   • What it might be inviting.

That’s enough to begin learning the book of creation. You could try an approach similar to the ancient practice of lectio Divina (Divine Reading). We might call it, lectio naturae or lectio of nature or terra divina. I call it Sensio Divina.

What about big decisions?

Signs might strengthen resolve, but as an accompaniment to wider discernment.

If you’re making a major decision, you might ask:

• Where, in my body, do I feel the impact of this message?

• Does this nudge lead me toward love, honesty and a fuller life, or toward fear and avoidance?

• Does it make me more humble, more grounded, more human?

• Does it increase my freedom, or does it create compulsion and urgency?

• If I imagine telling a wise, calm person, does it still sound like wisdom, or does it sound like I’m trying to persuade myself?

That last one is where spiritual direction can be priceless: someone helps you slow the story down and listen for what’s true.

When God speaks through nature, here are some questions to bring into spiritual direction

If nature has been getting your attention lately, here are good questions to bring to a session:

• What am I being invited to notice that I’ve been skimming past?

• What am I calling “coincidence” but might be more?

• Where am I hungry for guidance, and where am I trying to outsource responsibility?

• What happens in me when I let beauty affect me properly?

• If this moment in nature had a single word for me, what would it be, and why does that word land?

It doesn't happen for me

And if you're hungry for nature connection and dialogue with the Divine through nature, but it's not happening. Your spiritual director is there to help you develop your practice. 

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* After visiting more than 40 properties, these four encounters in quick succession were interpreted by my wife and me as signs that we'd found the place to call home, and we put in an immediate offer. Quite a big decision to stake on nature. But then I believe that God can speak to us through nature.

** Others on the sacred book of creation:

Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:24. 

For 20 years St. Antony lived in an abandoned hilltop fort in the Arabian desert. He spent his time in prayer, contemplation and the upkeep of a small garden. One day, a visiting philosopher asked him how he could be happy without the consolation of books. Antony replied, "My book is the nature of created things, and anytime I want to read the words of God, the book lies open before me."

The creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite and at the same time the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells us of God. John Calvin

Teach him if you can the wonder of books...… But also give him quite time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and the flowers on the green hillside. Abraham Lincon advice to his son's teacher.

THE SUN, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains—Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns? Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The world around us is a mighty volume wherewith God hath declared himself. John Wesley