1/'17 Creation Corner Col: New Year Reflections

January 2017 Creation Corner Column

Reflections upon a New Year

"...a glad new year to all the earth."  (concluding line of "From Heaven Above", Hymn 51, Lutheran Book of Worship)

Scripture in bold print; secular quotes in regular font.

Job 12: 7-8 "...ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth,and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you."  Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.  William Wordsworth

 

Psalm 104:24  "How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all: the earth is full of your wisdom."  Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.  John Muir

Psalm 138:8  "Oh Lord, do not abandon the works of your hands."  The greatest threat to our future is apathy.  Protest sign slogan

Psalm 90:12  "Teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom."  We repeatedly lose touch with what we intend our lives to stand for.  Barry Lopez

Isaiah 24:5-6a  "The earth is defiled by its people, they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the covenant.  Therefore a curse consumes the earth."  You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.  William Wilberforce

2 Chronicles 7:14  "If my people...turn from their wicked ways...I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."  In a dark time, the eye begins to see.  Opening of a poem by Theodore Roethke

Genesis 2:15  "And God put (us) in the garden of Eden to keep and serve it."  Its a phenomenal planet.  I wanted to give something back.  A Conservancy contributor

Hebrews 3:13 "Support one another daily."  What a country chooses to save is what a country says about itself.  Mollie Beattie

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