IN The Beginning God Created: Reflections of a Roman Catholic Woman Priest

“In the beginning God created…. (Gen 1:1)” EVERYTHING! Chapter 1 of the book of Genesis- the first book in the Bible gives beautiful descriptive metaphors of God creating all that we know of the earth and the cosmos. I love “Waters: swarm with an abundance of living beings!” (Gen 1:20) That is amply illustrated in the picture above of a Moorhen family tending their young on little lake, and in the picture of abundant lake life below. All beings are to “be fruitful and increase…” “God saw that this was good and blessed them” is said about every aspect of creation, including humankind that is given the charge of stewardship of all that was created (Gen 1: 26). “Humankind was created as God’s reflection; in the divine image God created them; female and male God made them” (Gen 1:27). I just love the end of that Chapter “God looked at all of this creation, and proclaimed that this was good–very good”. Gen !:31).

I admit that of all of God’s creatures I am most concerned about humankind as we too often plunder and harm the most amazing creation that we exist in. We are too often horrible to each other and to all living things. We allow each other to starve and thirst and go homeless all over the world. And we continue to have wars that demolish one another and the environment. We continue to use violence rather than reasoning to solve disputes, and we are greedy and want more and more. We are too often not very good stewards. Even with this little lake we have to be careful not to fill it with plastic and landscaping products that harm it. And this is a very small scale example of what is happening all over the world.

The Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) is a group that takes stewardship of our environment seriously. My friend, Linda VerNooy gives her life to this cause and to this group. I am so moved and inspired by her. Like her father before her, she has opened my eyes more and more to what is happening in our natural world. There are local Chapters of this group (citizensclimatelobby.org) and the groups are active on local and national and international issues, particularly regarding how we are changing the world we depend upon in terms of seasons and weather and climate in general. One might sign up for the newsletter@citizensclimatelobby.org. With the recent partisan struggle over debt limits many of the gains made in the past years on clean energy incentives and care for the climate are on the table. President Biden intends to keep these gains and we can be helpful with letters and phone calls to our congressional representatives.

This blog is a challenge to all of us to do all we can to preserve the beauty of Creation. I will simply show some varied beautiful things/aspects of and from my natural world, both near and far, and hope it helps you to reflect on what gives you joy too. And then inspire you to find your own ways of protecting Creation.

SPRING– Up North

FLORIDA SPRING

The Beauty of New Life

MAY OUR LOVING GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU LOVE AND CARE FOR PEOPLE AND CREATION all around you and to cherish your favorite things,

Love and blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP

Good Shepherd Ministries Fort Myers, Florida

5/24/23