Every time I see the sun rise or set, I am in total awe. Last summer I rose early one Saturday during a weekend at a church camp on Lake Okoboji in the Great Lakes region of Iowa. Seeing the myriad colors of that rising paints my mind each time I remember it. We see thousands of reasons to believe in God every day. His creation trumpets His praises, even when we are spiritually deaf. As Romans 1:19 and 20 proclaims: “But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.”
God created the world and that God interacts with God’s creation. Since I was a young boy I have been reciting the Apostle’s Creed Sunday after Sunday, both in the Methodist Church of my childhood and the Presbyterian Church of my adult years. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth” has been uttered untold billions of times by Christians around the globe. Seeing God as Creator is foundational that is to our doctrine and affirming it is to all the other tenets of our faith.
Recently, I came across one of my favorite books, Faith Seeking Understanding, where I was once again transformed by the Scripture -based words I found there. Theologian Daniel Migliore writes eloquently of the good creation: “The Bible proclaims the Good News in its very first verse, “In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth”(Gen 1:1). The creation of the world is the first of the majestic and gracious acts of the triune God. It is Gods calling “into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). While the good news of God’s free grace has its center in the liberating and reconciling work of Jesus Christ … the sovereign goodness of God is already at work in the act of creation. The triune God who eternally dwells in loving community also welcomes into existence a world of creatures different from God. The creation of the world, its reconciliation in Jesus Christ, and its promised renewal and consummation are all acts of the one triune God and they all exhibit the astonishing generosity and beneficence of this God.”
The doctrine of creation affirms God’s care for the created order and is the basis for renewed attention to the stewardship of the world in Christian ecological theology. We have a responsibility to care for God’s creation in our dominion. Migliore points out that God values and takes delight in all creatures and that “all creatures are able in some way to give glory to God the creator.” He goes on to write that “while the stars, the trees, and all the animals do not speak or sing of the glory of God in the same way as humans do, in their own way they too life up their praises to God, and for all we know they do this with a spontaneity and consistency far greater than our own.”
These thoughts echo the feelings of my adopted brothers and sisters of the Tlingit nation of Southeast Alaska, who have long held a belief in the sacredness of creation and the special relationship to the one God that every part of creation shares. The Tlingits, most of whom are Christians but still hold some core beliefs of their original Native philosophy, speak of the need for respect of the Creator and all of Creation. The Creator is called the “Diki En Kowoo” which means the Spirit above. For Native Christians, the Diki En Kowoo came to earth and walked as a man. His name was Jesus and he was a tribal person of brown skin in a land far away. The elders of my village often say “He was Respect in human form – no one respects the creation more than the Creator. We must show our respect for the Creator by respecting His creation. All life is sacred.”
So it is that when I read the eloquent words of Migliore I heard the whispers of the ones who adopted me and their ancestors. It is special to see that the doctrine of creation honors God and all that God has created and that creation is good. With spiritual eyes wide open, aided by the spctacles of the Word, we can see the co-existence and interdependence of all created beings also strikes a chord in my mind. During my five years in the wilderness of Alaska I was privileged to see nature as few see it, guided by such experts as Native fishermen and hunters, as well as whale watching scientists on Frederick Sound. Again and again I saw the circle of life played out with amazing natural precision. A thousand miracles dance on the northern Pacific each moment of the day, and God writes dissertations as the salmon return and pens sermons in every sunset.
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