How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious,  teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up;  when you open your hand,  they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified;  when you take away their breath,  they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit,  they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the LORD endure forever;  may the LORD rejoice in his works (Psalm 104:24-31).

I was thinking the other day about what we know from Scripture about how the Holy Spirit interacts with the natural world.  We know that from the beginning of creation God the Holy Spirit has been present on the earth.  In the beginning the Spirit “hovered” over the waters. The Hebrew word used there appears only three times in Bible.  The context suggests that the Spirit acted in the creation like the eagle in Deuteronomy 32:11 where the word is used again: The eagle “stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.” We also know from the passage above that the Spirit continues to act in creation by giving life. It seems from these references that the Spirit is a “pregnant” presence vital to each new life-giving and life-affirming natural act (“pregnant” in this sense meaning “full of creative power”).

Jurgen Moltmann in his book on the Holy Spirit and the theology of life (The Source of Life p. 114) elaborates on this truth and this passage:

Through the force of his Spirit [The Creator] forms the community of creation.  In his Spirit everything comes alive; without his Spirit everything disintegrates.  His eternal Spirit is the driving force and the vital spark in all things.  In everything living the passion for life is dominant—and the fear of death.  That is why everything living cries out for God’s Spirit, in which alone it can live and does not have to die.  What exists and cannot endure longs for the eternal existence of God in which it will have continuance. (Romans 8:18-25)

Further, dramatic appearances of the Holy Spirit are mentioned in the context of two other genesis events: the genesis of Jesus’ ministry at His baptism and the genesis of the Church at Pentecost.

This is both marvelous and mysterious.  Full understanding of it is certainly well beyond me.  But I think we can at least draw this conclusion: God the Holy Spirit is all about life and breath.  It is the Spirit who gives and perpetuates the life of all creation.

Yet here is something more personally compelling: This is the same Spirit who indwells you and me who have been rescued by God the Son–maintaining our physical life and giving us our spiritual life.  It’s my belief, therefore, that as we walk upon the face of the earth, the indwelling Spirit will stir our hearts when we observe and take part in the both the birth and death of living, breathing creatures.  Perhaps that’s the reason that God attends the death even of the sparrow (Luke 12:6-7).

George MacDonald is one of my favorite writers.  He was–through his written works–a mentor to C. S. Lewis.  MacDonald too wondered about the interactions of the Spirit within us and the Spirit outside us.  Here are his thoughts about that:

All about us in earth and air, wherever eye or ear can reach, there is a power ever breathing itself forth in signs.  Now it shows itself in a daisy, now in a waft of wind, a cloud, a sunset, and this power holds constant relation with the dark and silent world within us.  The same God who is in us and upon whose tree we are buds, also is all about us.  Inside the Spirit; outside the Word [Jesus, as per John 1:1].  And the two are ever trying to meet in us; and when they meet, the sign without and longing within become one.  The man no more walks in darkness, but in light, knowing where he is going.

It’s my earnest prayer that in my interactions with God’s wonderful creation I will be more and more attentive to the Spirit within and the Word without in order that I truly might know exactly where I am going.

[Fawn photo source: bjmccray]