Back to Eden: Reconnecting With God Through Natureናሙና

Re-greening Ourselves

"It must be a great disappointment to God if we are not dazzled at least 10 times a day."

Where do we belong?

It is a vast question, with vast answers. The search for belonging is at the heart of the human. So let’s narrow it down:

Do we belong here, on earth, or do we belong in heaven?

The idea that we’re all in some cosmic holding room, waiting for our ticket to heaven, is a destructive one. If this world is merely a means to an end, we don't have to treat it with any care or respect. If the Earth is not our home, we can do whatever we want with it. If there is a gap between people and land, vulnerable people can fall through the cracks.

And so here we are.

The question again:

Do we belong here, on earth, or do we belong in heaven?

Jesus loved to answer a question with another question, so I’ll do the same here:

If we belong in heaven, then what on earth are we doing here? And why on earth did God bother to make this world in the first place?

We are not here by accident. Nor are we here as part of some divine test. It was joy that made this world: God declares over everything he makes "it is good… it is good… it is good."

This declaration was reaffirmed with the incarnation – the eternal Christ becoming flesh in the body of the man Jesus – is an affirmation of this. God became part of this physical world. Jesus belonged here, and so do you.

Creation is good. It is good to be here. And when we look for and recognize that goodness, it gives goodness back to us.

There's a reason why I write about nature so much. It heals. It restores. It soothes. It sustains. It excites. It inspires. It delights. It can take your breath away, and is the very breath you take.

I'm saying 'it' a lot, but the it-ification of nature is an issue because this implies that it's something different from you.

You are part of nature. You are nature, and nature is you. Interconnected. Inseparable. 

Except we've done a very good job of trying to separate ourselves. This is one of the great human sicknesses: self-excommunication from the society of living things, the root of which is the idea that we don’t belong here.

The remedy is as simple as it is essential, at least on an individual level. We must re-establish our bond with wider creation. We must re-green ourselves. 

Breathe the larger air beyond our walls.

Put our hands into the soil.

Get dirt beneath our nails.

Spend time among the trees.

Walk barefoot on grass and sand and rock.

Listen to songbirds. Learn their names.

Eat local, seasonal food.

Stare at the stars.

Know the cycle of the moon.

Move our animal bodies.

Feel the wind in our hair.

Walk, swim and lay down in the wild.

Plant and nurture gardens.

Learn what the worm does, and why it keeps us alive.

Seek out wildflowers.

See meals as a sacrament. Say grace over your food, knowing that a living, Christ-woven thing has died to sustain you.

The mental, physical and spiritual benefits of soaking ourselves in the wider natural world are immense and myriad. We shouldn't need scientific studies to tell us this, but nonetheless, they exist in abundance.

My favorite is a study that showed that patients recovering from surgery who have a 'natural' view out of their window recover faster than those who don't. Just being able to see trees out of the window makes flesh and bone knit together faster. 

We can belong both here and in heaven. Nowhere in the Bible does it describe us being beamed up somewhere else. But it does describe in multiple places heaven coming here (for example in the incarnation, and in Revelation 21). 

God created a dazzling world, one that reflects the divine glory (Psalm 97:6). Nature is dazzling. You are dazzling. Go; re-green yourself – rediscover the place where you belong. Here.

Pray with us:

God of nature;

God of leaves moving in the breeze;

God of soil and grass and fruit and bull and bear;

God of the human –

We long to belong somewhere. 

Yet you have made this extraordinary world for us to live in.

Help us to see this.

Help us to know it.

Help us to reconnect with the earth, and with all other living things.

Forgive us for not embracing the gift you have given us,

And for the destruction this has caused.

We say yes to this world – to both heaven and earth.

Amen.