The world has always and probably always will debate and discuss creation. Much of this debate falls in to the science versus science camp, as if the two cannot coexist. Those of us who have a faith, a belief system, will have grown up with very different creation stories that we still hold dear. Many of us will believe in a higher power, a source, many of us will use the word God. Maybe, like me, you believe in a God who is the designer and instigator of all that is.
Every scientific fact and theory of creation strives to answer a ‘how’ or ‘when’ question, but only God the creator can answer the ‘why’.
One thing I do believe is that God’s creativity knows no bounds, his imagination is amazing, almost humorous. Just look at platypuses, dragonflies, hedgehogs. Only Mother God can take a perfectly fine horse and decide we need a stripey version.
I do also believe that God’s creativity is all encompassing, if you believe in God the creator then all that you can see is indeed God’s wondrous creation. You do not get to sit from your position of privilege and decide what is not God’s beautiful creation. Yes, that cute kitten you saw on Facebook is indeed God’s beautiful creation.
But so is the drug addict who staggered past you yesterday, so is the homeless person you avoided eye contact with. You can sit there and tut at what you think are God’s mistakes, I admire your arrogance to think you know better than God your creator.
Just because some of creation annoys us, doesn’t mean its not vital, as Dolly Parton says, you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain, so let us go to God in prayer.
Heavenly Parent, wondrous creator;
We thank you for pine trees and ash trees and oak trees and cactus.
We thank you for poppies and lilies and roses and dog-weed.
We thank you for dandelions and tulips and lupins and stinging nettles.
We thank you for bears and wolves and tigers and cockroaches, for otters and fish and lizards and hyenas.
For clouds and sunsets, the beach, the mountains, the hot lava at the core of our earth
Mother God, Father Eternal, we thank you for rocks and minerals and vitamins and DNA.
We thank you that skin comes in every colour from the palest porcelain to the most beautiful black and every shade between. For curly hair, straight hair, for people with no hair. For blue eyes, brown eyes, the miracle of false eyes.
We thank you for all the sexes and genders, all the different ways you enable us to be. We praise your almighty name that you create straight people, gay people, bi people, asexual people; queer people of all variety.
Holy Spirit we thank you that creation causes such emotion in us, we thank you for still lakes, meandering streams, crashing oceans. For cosy fires and perfect clear skies.
Jesus, when we look at your creation with disdain, when ask, “Whats the point of that?” or worse, “Whats the point of them?”, may we truly take the time to listen to the answer, to see the bigger ecosystem. Each of us is a small but vital part of God’s ecosystem.
Just because we don’t understand aspects of creation doesn’t make it worthless, doesn’t make us better than it, doesn’t give us permission to wipe it out.
Renew in us a sense that we are all gardeners called to tend to your creation. Called to tend to the tigers and the bees, the birds and the seas, the dogs, the cats, the mice, the rats. Called to protect the forests and the meadows, the scared and the lonely, the stranger, the foe; called to care wherever we go.
Amen!
The Unexpected Prayer 