Tearfund Lent Devotional Day 21

You are nature

‘God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.’ (Genesis 1:31, NIV)

It was joy that made this world: God declares over everything he makes, ‘It is good… It is good… It is good.’

This declaration was reaffirmed with the incarnation – the eternal Christ becoming flesh in the body of the man Jesus. God became part of this physical world. Jesus belonged here, and so do you.

We must open ourselves to wider creation.

Breathe the larger air beyond our walls. Put our hands into the soil. Get dirt beneath our nails. Spend time among the trees. Walk barefoot on grass and sand and rock. Listen to songbirds. Learn their names. Stare at the stars. Know the cycle of the moon. Move our animal bodies. Learn what the worm does, and why it keeps us alive. Seek out wildflowers. See meals as sacred.

God created a dazzling world, one that reflects the divine glory (Psalm 97:6). Go – rediscover the place where you belong.

God of nature, we long to belong somewhere. Yet you have made this extraordinary world for us to live in. Help us to see this. Help us to know it. Help us to reconnect with the earth, and with all other living things. Amen.

Gideon Heugh

Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist