Before anything began growing on the earth, God knelt in the dirt and planted a garden. Yes, that’s right: the story of the Bible begins with God, the Almighty and Everlasting One, gardening.
Lest we feel tempted to think of God as far off, distant, not that interested in the details of our lives on this tiny planet—and we are tempted to think this—our first glimpse of God shows him getting his hands dirty, lovingly forming life from the dust. Plants. Animals. Humans. The Genesis story introduces a Creator God who likes to go for an evening stroll in the cool of the day, lingering in the garden with his creatures. After all, this place he formed by hand is very, very good.
It’s hard to wrap my mind around God loving mewith such personal, dynamic love but the biblical message is even greater than this: God loves all creation this way. Not merely “all people,” which is taxing enough on our imaginations. Throughout the Bible we see a Creator who is deeply invested in a relationship and conversation with both human and non-human creation.
Does this blow your mind? God lovingly communicates with the stars and the ocean creatures and the microbes in the soil. Have I been too busy focusing on my own existence to pay attention to this relationship, or even care? Yes. But that doesn’t make it less significant, less true. I’m not the center of the universe. God has been carrying on this relationship with nature since the beginning of time. And the Hebrew word we translate compassion when it’s used to describe God in the Bible is related to the word for womb. God loves God’s creation like a motherwhose womb gave birth to creation.
We Must Care for Creation
Many of us see the natural world—from plants and animals to minerals and soil—as essentially the kitchen pantry God provided us, his human creatures; resources to use however we want. But this is not a biblical picture. As we pillage and plunder and all but destroy this garden God planted, it’s worth taking a step back to remember that God commanded us to care for this world; to tend the soil, the plants, and the animals like he does, like a gardener, like a shepherd. Humans are set apart in that God invites us to work alongside him in compassionate care—not to exhaust the earth’s resources at our pleasure.
But even in our best moments of stewardship and creation-care, we see ourselves as the central characters. Us—caring for the world God gave to humans. Us—stewarding the resources in the pantry for the next generation.
This us-centered perspective is not part of the Christian (and Hebrew) story, a story that depicts God in relationship with creation, of his womb-compassion that extends not only to you and me but to the earth and all its creatures in all their magnificence. From the corners of the universe, to the depths of the oceans, to the tiniest of invisible particles—just imagine how many billions of miles of creation only God has ever seen, ever enjoyed, ever delighted in.
East of Eden, after the flood washed away all life from the earth, God declared his covenant to never destroy the world. But this promise was not made only to Noah and his descendants. Let’s listen in:
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” (Genesis 9:8-17, emphasis mine)
God sure does drive this message home! No one could possibly come away from this covenant encounter without understanding that God was addressing all living things.
See the Big Picture
And this was just the beginning. The rest of the Bible is full of God conversing with his non-human creation—even if the conversation is on a frequency we can’t easily tune into.
When you see a group photo, where does your attention go? As humans, our first and primary instinct is to look for ourselves. Where am I in this picture? After assessing how we look, we rarely spend the same level of energy on the rest of the picture. Do we make the same error when we look at the Bible, when we look at the living world around us? We see ourselves, what God promises to us, what God is doing for me, where I fit into the story—and fail to notice the rest.
Here is just a glimpse:
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. (Psalm 19:1-2)
But 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.
Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:7-10)
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. (Luke 10:29)
…should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals? (Jonah 4:11)
All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104:27-30)
God’s plan is so much bigger, better, and more beautiful than we think. All along he’s been loving and caring for you, and me, and all people, and all creation, with the compassionate tenacity of a mother or father. The story that began with God gardening, ends with a new garden, a tree growing along a river flowing from his throne, and from this tree will come healing for all the world.
God’s loving compassion, his covenant, his relationship, and his redemption plan, is for all creation. He has invited us to join in. Will we?
Humans are set apart in that God invites us to work alongside him in compassionate care—not to exhaust the earth’s resources at our pleasure. Click To Tweet
