In his book, The Seven Pillars of Creation (Oxford University Press, 2010), author William P. Brown uses scientific knowledge to expand, interpret, and rethink the meaning of the Bible for our time. He discovers numerous “points of contact” between science and scripture and concludes the book with these thoughts about the importance of seeing the universe as God’s creation:To claim the world as creation is not to denounce evolution and debunk science. To the contrary, it is to join in covenant with science in acknowledging creation’s integrity, as well as its giftedness and worth. To see the world as creation is to recommit ourselves to its care, not as the fittest, most powerful creatures on the animal planet but as a species held uniquely responsible for creation’s flourishing. It is to celebrate the inalienable beauty and dignity of all living kind and bear witness to God’s manifold creation. It is also to bear witness to creation’s groaning as the ground suffers from deforestation, mountaintop removal, toxic dumping, and rising temperatures. To see the world as God’s intricate, intelligible, surprising, sustainable creation is to return to wonder and go forth in wisdom, such that “the mountains and the hills…shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (Isa. 55:1-2).
Spring in the North Country reminds us that the mountains and hills do burst into song with the return of life, and we can indeed all but hear the fields clap their hands with young crops promising a bountiful harvest. In the North Country, we also witness the steady erosion of God’s creation and feel the responsibility God has planted in us for this tiny corner of her vast creation.
