Eco Theology: It’s All Good

A series which explores the theology of creation care in bite-sized chunks

It’s All Good

A week or so ago I took my daughter over to the park.  We were having a blast playing on the playground together.  It was a great time, except for one thing… I kept finding myself cringing as she would get dirtier and dirtier.  It had rained just a day earlier and the slides were still wet, though that didn’t stop here from using them.  So as her clothes got wet the dirt, sand, avian fecal matter (a.k.a. bird poop), and who-knows-what-else was sticking to her.  I was saying over and over, “no toques eso” (don’t touch that).  Of course, it’s hard to stop a 2 year old from touching anything so my commands went unheeded.  As we got home my first thought was to strip her down, clean, and sanitize her immediately.

Upon some reflection I realized that on that afternoon in many ways I had reverted back to the view of the universe that has been ingrained in so many of us since we were little kids:  namely that spiritual things are good and physical things are bad.  As Christians we talk about getting to the other side and being with God in heaven so that we can be past the ailments of the physical world.  Many look forward to a spiritual, ethereal place where we can just float around untainted by physical things.  While there is much to be said for looking forward to being with God (please don’t get me wrong on that), there is something wrong with this view we have inherited that basically says: spiritual good, physical bad.  I don’t want to get technical on you, but let me simply point out that this is very much the heritage of Plato’s view of the universe as well as of the Gnostics who claimed that matter was evil.  As we look back on history here we realize how much we have been influenced to treat spiritual things as good at the expense of treating physical things are bad or evil.

Of course, as Christians it’s not that we don’t appreciate spiritual things.  However, that is not to say that the physical is evil.  Broken yes, but not evil.  Consider the words of God as He looked over His creation in Genesis 1:31 (NRSV).

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

It is important to note that the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, holds to a view that creation is good. God Himself declares repeatedly that His creation was good. If God values His creation then so should we, who are made in God’s image.  As we look at the physical world (specifically at God’s creation), we must not forget Who created it and that it is good.  Certainly brokenness has crept in, but that does not change the inherent goodness of creation.

A couple days ago my daughter and I went out again.  On the way to the park we stopped to enjoy God’s creation, dirt and all.  We played with dirty leaves that were absolutely beautiful and glorified their Creator.  We touched the bark on trees, felt the grass, and just enjoyed the goodness of God’s creation, dirt and all.  She still got cleaned up when we got back but not in order to wash of the evil stain of the physical world.

Praise be to our Maker and Creator for the goodness of His creation.

Also consider:

Green Adventures: The Strange Things We Do

Definitions: Creation Care

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