Nature, the sister of humanity

The psalmist tells us “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” (Psalm 19)

Founder’s Hollow gave me a glimpse of God’s creation last week. The animals and the ponds opened a window to God’s loving personality. All of His work breathes love for us.

As I walked,  I came across the newly hatched swans in the upper pond. The nurturing and protective care of the mother swan was quite evident to these awkward grey fledglings. Three aggressive geese approached the new creatures and the mother warded them off without hesitation.

God’s caring and loving personality speaks to us through nature. No matter what the situation, God will always protect us from the “geese” of evil, he will always step in for us when we are down and weak and fragile.

John Paul the Great tells us, “Nature therefore becomes a Gospel that speaks to us of God: 'For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator' (Wis 13:5). Paul teaches us that 'Ever since the creation of the world his (God's) eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made' (Rom 1:20). But this capacity for contemplation and knowledge, this discovery of a transcendent presence in creation, must also lead us also to rediscover our fraternity with the earth, to which we have been linked since creation (Gen 2:7). This very goal was foreshadowed by the Old Testament in the Hebrew Jubilee, when the earth rested and man gathered what the land spontaneously offered (Lv 25:11-12). If nature is not violated and humiliated, it returns to being the sister of humanity.”

Contributed by one of our Marianist high school students