3.6 The Community of Creation.

‘In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and fig tree,’ there lives a rabbit.

He has his community, his household and his vocation. His vocation is to eat the things that we grow. He has his roadways, his exits, and his work schedule.

He is beautiful yet he is not beloved.

We tend to think of this as our property, but it is not. We are in co-tenancy with the thriving community of creation, some of it visible, some not. The invisible ranges from the tiny to the nocturnal. If we don’t live peacefully and care for all of creation, if we oppress and disdain, then we will repeat that practice with each other. At its fiercest, we are no match for nature. At its finest, we are in awe of its beauty.

There is poetry and pageantry to the manifold life that is teeming all around us. Creation is microscopic in the soil and macroscopic in the galaxies. Beatrice Bruteau suggests that the Creator created a universe that continues to be self-creating. We become creators and builders as a part of that cycle, creating in the image of the Creator.

We are woven into this community of creation. If our praxis is a unification of our beliefs and practices, then we must practice creation care. The first act of creation care is to sense the sense of wonder, deeply, that comes from listening to the voice of the continuing song of creation. Community is an act of creation, or at the very least, an act of participation in the community of creation, in nature, all around us.