Today I ran across what I thought was an excellent article on the new “Her.meneutics” website, the Christianity Today blog for women.  So I copied it here verbatim—hoping they won’t mind.  You can find it online here.

I believe our WOC readers will enjoy it.

Humans in Creation: Another View
Nature’s enduring value is not in what it can provide us.

by Lisa Graham McMinn

Earth Day came and went last week, represented on Her.meneutics with a flurry of commenters responding to Kay Warren’s piece, “Puppies Aren’t People.” On the same day, DisneyNature released Earth, a film blending spectacular beauty, heart-warming scenes of animal families, the realities of life and death, and the impact of change. According to Variety, Earth is the highest-grossing documentary for an opening weekend. As my husband, Mark, and I stood in line to buy our tickets, we learned that Disney is planting a tree for every ticket purchased in the first week of the film’s release. So far over 500,000 trees will be planted in the fragile Atlantic Rainforest of northern Brazil.

Embedded in Earth’s beauty and narration are reminders that ecosystems have been altered in ways that make flourishing difficult. We witness a polar bear struggling to survive, and while we don’t see him die, it appears that he does. As the summer ice melts, he loses his platform for hunting and his ability to feed after hibernating all winter. But on the upside, we see mama polar bear introducing her cubs to the world, a bird teaching her young to fly, a whale migrating with her calf, and elephants with their cadre of babies trekking across deserts in search of water. Earth shows mamas at every turn – nurturing, teaching, chastising, carrying, and nudging. (Watch the trailer and get a two-minute sample.)

Earth and films like it serve to remind viewers that we are only one part of creation, and are given the task to bear God’s image, which includes being steward caretakers of Earth. We are interdependent with all of creation and need a healthy Earth to flourish. We love others—both human and non-human—as we care for ecosystems that sustain life. What is good for forests and polar bears ends up being good for people, too. Earth reminds us, for instance, that God created trees not primarily for humans to turn into houses or fuel, but to help keep the atmosphere in balance by absorbing CO2 and releasing oxygen. And trees are home to a myriad of birds and insects that God delights in and loves. God designed creation so that all its inhabitants could flourish; humans are just one species, with the unique responsibility to see that others flourish.

It’s a challenge to think of creation this way. Mostly, we think of it in terms of what we need from it to survive. I would suggest that we have lost sight of a bigger picture held more clearly by Christians before the Industrial Revolution. Hear C. S. Lewis’s wisdom, from Mere Christianity:

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the [man] who turns back soonest is the most progressive. . . . And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.

Lewis wasn’t talking about creation care in particular, but the principle fits. And evangelicals are turning around. One example is Flourish, a national conference of leaders on creation care to be held in Duluth, Georgia, next month. It’s the first national gathering of its kind, seeking to help the church help all Christians move forward. We are turning, and representing something of God’s image as we do.

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I will be attending the Flourish conference and hope to report from there.

See you outdoors!

Dean

There are lots of things not to like about YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and the Internet in general, but I have to confess that there are many benefits to the Internet that daily enrich my life.  For instance, as I am writing this post, I’m in my office in the RBC building–in my “Dilbert” cubicle.  Not having total privacy and control of all noise factors, I have my headset on and am listening to Pandora Radio–to my self-designated “radio station” that plays Mozart and similar composers.  So I get the double benefit of noise blocking and the Mozart Effect.
Isaac Watts

Without the Internet, how would I have ever heard the heartwarming story of Susan Boyle.  And without it, how could you follow all the links that I’ve placed in this post!

For me, though, it is the research and historical aspects that I most appreciate.  For instance, since—sad to say—the old hymns are not sung much in the churches we’ve attended for the past decade, I can find them in all their splendor on the Internet.  One of my favorites is the great hymn by Isaac Watts, “I Sing the Mighty Power of God.”  For a spiritual spring tonic to make your heart glory in the wonder of God’s creation, listen to this YouTube clip featuring the Ball Brothers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7nTnY61Sdo

I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord that filled the earth with food;
He formed the creatures with His word and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed where’er I turn my eye:
If I survey the ground I tread or gaze upon the sky!

There’s not a plant or flower below but makes Thy glories known;
And clouds arise and tempests blow by order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care,
And everywhere that man can be, thou, God, art present there.

Here are a couple more that will stir your heart and motivate you to revel in the glories of spring:

This is My Father’s World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHs7uwqAxm0

All Creatures of Our God and King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSb1-9i-fDA

See you outdoors!

It has been an almost perfect spring in Michigan this year—perfect for farmers.  The warm-up has been very slow, which is good especially for fruit growers who are concerned that we not have blossoms unfurling  too early: blooming before the pollinators are fully on the job, or blooming before several hard frosts do a number on both the blossoms and the pollinators.  A few years back our northwest coastal cherry growers lost over half their crop because of a late March warm spell.

But the chilly and wet spring has not been enjoyable for play outdoors.  And when you are a grandparent of six grandkids with serious cases of cabin fever, you want it to be warm and dry on the first day of spring—and stay that way.  If I had my druthers, it could be sunny and sixty-six every day from March to July.  But, for some reason, the Creator seems to know better what provides the best benefit for the most people.  So He has given us a perfect spring—which eventually included some wonderful mild weather leading up to this weekend and our first series of warm thunderstorms.  (If I had “the call,” I would be a storm chaser.)

As always, these weather factors have given the woods another change of floor covering: Fall provided a shaggy rug of brilliant, newly fallen leaves, which did not last long before it was replaced by  the plush white carpet of winter.  After the snow the rain-glossed linoleum of flattened coffee-hued leaves turned the wooded landscape into that dull duotone of dark gray and browns that screamed for color.

Now, PTL, the color has arrived: big green patches of wild leeks, the darker blotchy greens of the trout lily plant thrusting up polka dots of yellow blooms that contrast nicely with the whites of bloodroot and wood anemone.  Creamy squirrel corn blossoms rise above their own frilly green carpet.  And above it all, the birds are all lark-happy with the return of bugs and worms and the easy-to-grab nesting material.

Heightening my enjoyment of such days are evening hours reading another of my great used-book discoveries:  Scratching The Woodchuck: Nature on an Amish Farm by David Kline.  Here is a snippet for you to enjoy:

Last year I was by myself [in Christmas Hollow] when I found the hepaticas, and since it was the middle of May, the trees were in leaf, the woods were ringing with bird song, and the flowers were white trilliums, rue anemones, downy phlox, and jack-in-the-pulpits.  Everything about the place—its seclusion, its life, its beauty—had the aura of hallowed ground.  As a friend calls these special wild places: it was a small honey spot.  The wind in the trees and the water flowing over the shale-bottomed creek seemed to whisper, “Do not come closer. Take off our gumboots, because you are standing on holy ground.”  So I did.  Our return this spring, and the sight of the hepaticas in bloom, reaffirmed my belief that many of us need wild, unspoiled places where we feel close to God.  Places that are becoming scarcer and scarcer.

As Aldo Leopold wrote, “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.”  I am one of those who would have a hard time doing without wild things and wild places.  In so stating, I think I speak for all those botanizers, aged ten to eighty, who walked down that hollow to look at the lovely hepaticas in the renewal and rebirth of spring.

Do you have your special spring spot?  If you do, feel free to tell us about it in the comment pages.  If you don’t, make yourself a sabbath and start exploring for one.

See you outdoors!

Dean
(Assisted with my photos by Elle Ohlman, 6)

Curse.  This frightfully negative term brings up visions of some evil witch tossing lizard livers and toad feet into a pot of magical potion by which she plans to bedevil some good person—pronouncing an awful curse.  Yet curses are found in our Holy Scriptures:

To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:17-19)

So what’s a Harry Potterish activity like this doing in the Bible?

Ecology flag

To answer that, it’s helpful to understand that the only real supernatural biblical curses are related directly to the actions of our good and loving heavenly Father.  Seems odd, doesn’t it?  The purpose of curses was to create hardship and loss—to reduce something of significant value to its lowest, most menial dimensions—to even turn something good into something apparently bad.  Curses were pronounced as a punishment, and Israel’s priests would make them in passing judgment on sinful behavior (Deut. 27:14-26).

In God’s curses, though, there is no magic; only His eternal power.  And His most significant curse still affects us today: the curse on the earth brought about by Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience.  That curse, however, was not some sort of revenge on God’s part.  It was an act of loving discipline—the creation of physical discomfort and hardship to remind people every day of their lives that something is not right with the earth.  It’s in the grip of sin, and we suffer because of it.  And don’t we know it!

Earth Day Canada

But there’s a remedy for this curse—for any of God’s curses: the cure is  faithfulness to His commands and a return to obedience.  One key aspect of obedience is our being good stewards of the earth (Genesis 2:15). One day, as the carol “Joy to the World” declares, Jesus will return, and we who have placed our faith in Him will sing with new understanding, “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow—far as the curse is found!”

The angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him (Revelation 22:1-3). [Emphasis mine.]

Earth Day flag

We don’t have to wait idly for that day, though.  We can be involved right now in helping stop the needless degradation of the earth created by human abuse of God’s good creation.  We can make our annual, local Earth Day activities a sort of forward-looking sacrament that anticipates the wonderful final Earth Day when Jesus returns to restore it to the paradise it was before the curse.  And by so doing, we can live out our faith and demonstrate our hope in the presence of those who are feeling more and more hopeless every day.  Today and from now on, we can use Earth Day as one of the most significant opportunities to witness to the lost—not by condemning it, but by redeeming it.

Why not share J. B. Phillips beautiful paraphrase of the Romans passage on creation’s hope with your community?

The Peaceable Kingdom

In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!

It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realized our full sonship in him. We were saved by this hope, but in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven’t yet got. But if we hope for something we cannot see, then we must settle down to wait for it in patience (Romans 8:18-25).

See you outdoors!

Dean

Today is John Muir’s birthday.  How fitting it is that the birthday of the guardian of Yosemite would fall on the day before Earth Day.

Wikipedia summarizes his life:

John Muir (21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914) was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of U.S. wilderness. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, have been read by millions and are still popular today. His direct activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. His writings and philosophy strongly influenced the formation of the modern environmental movement.

Below are three websites where you can celebrate in sight and sound the wonder of God’s  creation as expressed by Muir and revealed by Yosemite National Park, a location that can be characterized as “awesome” without exaggeration.  Enjoy the experiences!

Video

http://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jscnhm/v1n2/muirquotes.html

Still Photography

http://www.flickr.com/groups/yosemite/pool/show/

To conclude this experience, consider the wonderful words of the old hymn by F. S. Pierpoint that is heard so seldom these days.  Here sung by the Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) choir [score by John Rutter]:

For The Beauty Of The Earth

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above,
Pleasures pure and undefiled,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For each perfect gift of thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of heaven,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For thy Church which evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

hoto

See you outdoors!

Dean