Creation Sings

St. Isaac of Syria

“What is a merciful heart? A heart which burns for all creation, for men and birds and animals and demons, and for every creature. As he calls them to mind and contemplates them, his eyes fill with tears. From the great and powerful compassion that grips the heart and from long endurance his heart diminishes, and cannot bear to hear or see any injury or any tiny sorrow in creation. This is why he constantly offers prayer with tears for dumb beasts, and for the enemies of truth, and for those that hurt him, that they may be protected and shown mercy; likewise he prays for the race of creeping things, through the great compassion which fills his heart, immeasurably, after the likeness of God.”

Today we celebrate creation Sunday. What better way for us to see creation then through the eyes of St. Isaac. We have to consider the creation if we are to live in balance with the rest of life. There are enough people talking about all this with fear and dire warnings, but this is the simplest way. 

Balance is something we seek in all of our life. Whether it is time at work and then for ourselves, or in what we eat as certain foods keep our body in balance, or in what we take time for, because if we only work we have no time for the connections outside us which energize and recharge us. So it is with creation.

Some may live in the city, yet every city creates beautiful parks which help us to reconnect with nature and gives green space to offset the crowded feeling of buildings. I have had the pleasure to go to the woods my dad loved a week ago. I spent time walking, watching the stars and seeing the Milky Way in the night sky. These feed my soul and I know others whose souls are fed. One man I talked with this week said that the woods heal you and we all need time to slow down and pay attention.

That is the real part of this, paying attention. Making it our intention to see how and what we might do to make this a better place. We are to care for the created things. To notice and recognize the smallest and most vulnerable because this is where God's attention is. God tells Israel that they were chosen not for their power and might, or for how big they were, but because they were small. 

Take time today to go and dwell in nature. Look and see what draws your heart. Spend time there and you will begin to know the presence and know the direction you are to follow there.