Earth Day
Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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“Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit ‘round and pluck blackberries.” ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning. On this Earth Day those who are people of faith are reminded our first, highest and holiest calling is to love, cherish and care for the earth.
The environmental crisis is a spiritual crisis. We are not likely to cherish and protect what we take for granted. We are not likely to restore and renew what we do not revere. We are not likely to save what we do not savor and regard as sacred.
Marcel Proust wrote, “The real voyage consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.” Jesus said, “Those with eyes to see…”. We need new eyes.
Imagine the healing and restoration that would happen if we saw the earth not as a commodity to be consumed for our pleasure and greed but our sacred home we share as one family. Imagine the healing and transformation if we had eyes to see “The earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.” Imagine if we stopped selfishly trampling the earth, took off our shoes, and walked lightly seeing the ground as holy.
Wendell Berry wrote, “We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.”
What will you do to express your love for God’s holy earth today?