All Creation Keeps Creating
“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”.
I’ve realised recently that Mother Earth, Papatūānuku, never stops giving.
I’ve been observing and admiring how nature always “finds a way”. A tree is chopped down, and months later a small shoot rises up from the edge of the flat stump, reaching for the spring sun. A tiny seed is pressed into soil, and given a little water it sprouts and grows into food in a number of weeks. Trees grow out of the side of a rock on a steep hillside. Branches and trunks bend and twist towards the light in whatever space is given to them.
She never stops living, she never stops giving.
But the verse says “God feeds them” - if that is true then why are people still going hungry? Where is God today? This is a question I struggle with and I wanted to offer a thought, alongside these photos I took while thinking about it.
If life is always springing up then there is no shortage of it’s potential to feed and bring life to all - it is humans who have created the systems that either strangle it from producing or withhold what is produced. I like to envision the “kingdom” being talked about in scripture by the analogy of a garden. If life is constantly springing up - if nature is working to heal and restore, then we simply need to work with it instead of against it. We can carefully tend to this garden to release it’s potential for life and beauty.
Today I’m seeing this verse and the surrounding verses as a call to relinquish our mindset of scarcity and individualism, and embrace one of generosity and cooperation. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Us humans are part of this garden too, and we should tend to our own hearts to see what might need to be trimmed back. We should tend to the systems we have created that deny the rights and dignity of other humans and other living beings in this garden.
Jesus constantly talked about the kingdom being now. I believe it is our duty to participate in the coming of that kingdom, just like he did - a kingdom that might just look something like a flourishing garden.
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
- Luke 12
