9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
The audacity of God is driven by divine goodness.
There is something here that is both elementary and glorious. Our first experiences of God are experiences of wonder and amazement. These passages tell us that God created all things that they may be here on earth, not that they should become extinct. God’s divine activity runs through all creation. Our first bible to read should be a study of the creation over which we have been entrusted. We need to learn the stories of the trees, how they communicate, the activities of the birds, how animals communicate and breed, and how to work the soil.
Now, presently the world is in a horrible mess almost everywhere. Our own country has been a massive failure politically, with incompetence from every department and stealing from most. Post apartheid has seen billions of Rands stolen or wasted by those who supposedly fought for the poor. Trump is giving the green light to rape the earth, drilling for it’s last remaining resources; Netanyahu believes one atrocity is green light to genocide, six white South African directors, millionaires, are in court for trying to sell Dimension Data illegally. Sudan and the DRC haven’t a clue as to what they are even fighting for.
In the face of all this (and there is a lot more!!!) God has the audacity to say the Earth is good! It is in agony, but it is good. What we are seeing around the world currently is NOT an act of God. People, for different reasons, but all in total ignorance, are causing the earth to suffer greatly. The weather is part of the earths determination not only to survive but to fight back. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that the root meaning of “university” is a place we go to learn to see the world as a whole, like God does.
“Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.” Job 12:7
From our passage above, we note the following.
1.The Earth is from which we come and on which we live and to which we shall return. The air through which the earth moves, meets us only at the horizon, a place we can never reach. We can only ever be the horizon for others!
- Earth is something for us to experience, to find a rootedness, for knowing the firmness of God. Our journey to God is a journey inward, into ourselves and into the Earth. God might also be out there beyond the blue but beware you don’t trip over God in your searching.
- Remember the tomato bush – struggling a bit in the current heat, – is there because of a tiny seed. Only God could have created the first seed. Propagation has followed, but the seed is still the critical factor to us eating tomatoes! If we ate all the seeds, or destroyed the ground, we would soon run out of food.
- Consider what this might say to you about your existence on earth. And what will take place at death? Can you see the “seed” within yourself indestructibly moving on.
I leave you with my favourite illustration. The caterpillar never gets to see the butterfly that will later emerge!!!
You can contact me for further discussion on 0813366143 or crockeym@gmail.com
References:
Beginning now by J.D. Davies 1971
Sheer Joy by Matthew Fox interviewing Thomas Aquinas 1992.