James Weldon Johnson grew up in black congregations nurtured by the poetic preaching of many servants of God. He became a civil rights leader, a poet, a university teacher, political activist and basically a remarkable human being. His poetic expression of early 20th century black preaching is captured in his book, now a classic, “God’s Trombones.” Here is a taste from the chapter titled “The Creation,” based on the Genesis story of the creation of the Earth.

“And God stepped out into space,

And he looked around and said;

I’m lonely –

I’ll make me a world.

And far as the eye of God could see

Darkness covered everything,

Blacker than a hundred midnights

Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,

And the light broke.

And the darkness rolled up on one side,

And the light stood shining on the other,

And God said: ‘That’s good!'”

I would love to go on. Johnson’s words are so wonderful, particularly his picturing the “great God, like a mammy bending over her baby kneeled down in the dust…” and created humanity by blowing God’s own breath of life into a lump of clay. “Amen. Amen.”

And so the creator of all, with love for all as a mammy with her newborn child, looks upon the whole of creation, earth, water, creepy crawlies, winged and four footed, and you and me and pronounces, “It is good!”

I have read many books, have some degrees, learned much from many, but my greatest teacher, showing me the complexity, oneness and beauty of life, has been nature. Nature is cruel and kind, mysterious and astounding, beautiful and at times hard to watch. It is useful, but desecrated when its worth is seen only in its usefulness. Nature, respected, loved for its being, welcomes us to her bosom as James Weldon Johnson’s mammy God welcomes infant humanity. Desecrated, nature diminishes our lives, has the power to kill.

A conversion is called for, a change in personal and community life goals from an individualistic “How can the Earth be of use to my life?” world view to a stewardship “How can I be of use to the life of the Earth?” world view. This conversation, akin to the healing of blindness, will open our eyes to see more clearly, perhaps even for the first time, the innate sacredness of creation and its creatures. The fingerprint of God on each and all will come into focus.

When Genesis has God say after each act of creation, “It is good!”, it is saying creation is sacred. By looking carefully, prayerfully at rivers, oceans, forests, beasts and landscapes, by looking carefully, more reverently at the Earth and one another we will see their goodness, the innate beauty and worth of each and all and then we can learn from them. Motivated by this transformed sight, we will accept our relationship to Earth and its life as the work of stewardship. Transformed, we will come to understand that it is sacrilege to value the Earth first and foremost for what it can do for us, a sacrilege that leads to death.

In Genesis, the original Hebrew word used to describe the relationship with the Earth to which God calls us is often translated in English as our having “dominion.” It is a poor translation. It suggests dominance. The call is not to dominance. God calls us to responsibility for, as well as delight in, the creation. We are called to be gardeners, stewards of God’s garden Earth.

It takes discipline to cultivate spiritual sight, to see the sacred in each and all things. Taking on a daily, even hourly, spiritual discipline is a beginning. Imitate God by cultivating the discipline to look with the eyes of love of the mammy at any aspect of nature. She sees the sacredness in what others too easily considered no more than a lump of clay.

God offers beauty to us every day, every hour, even more frequently. Most of the time, our eyes closed by our preoccupations, our time claimed by lesser matters, we don’t stop, look and listen to the sacred that inundates our days.

What do we do after we begin seeing the sacred in and around us? Follow where it leads and join with others who are ready to join the expanding community of stewards of the Earth.

We can’t do all the gardening that needs doing, but we can pick one thing and listen to it and learn from it about life and stewardship and ask what we can do for its life rather than just what it can do for ours.

Some of us in Yarmouth have chosen to ask this of the Royal River. Join us if you’d like.

Bill Gregory is a writer, seeker, worshiper, a retired UCC minister finding life at least as meaningful and fun, maybe more so, at this stage of life. He welcomes your responses at wgregor1@maine.rr.com

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