It’s an odd thing, to be a Christian in the year of our Lord 2025. The most conventional approach to the faith is to pretend that the world around us has no spiritual existence. To pretend that it is entirely dissectable, entirely material, entirely as those around us without faith see it. But the universe is animate. God created it so.
I don’t understand why those of the household of faith wish to pretend that it is otherwise. It’s safe, I suppose. And it opens you to far less mockery. When faith itself is something that is politely smiled away, saying that you believe in more than the Creator Himself is dangerous. Believing that there is more to the world does not, however, mean that I worship it.
Those in the scientific community, by hook or by crook, are learning that plants communicate. 20 years ago, such ideas were anathema to “real scientists”. Now we’re all trying to inoculate our gardens with mycelium, not simply to grow edible mushrooms but to improve the soil as a whole. The more we learn about the world, the more interesting it grows – the more detailed, the more layered. Certainly the atheist scientist will deny the spiritual aspects of the creation, as they deny all spiritual aspects – that’s consistent. But that there is intention, that the universe may truly be animate? These ideas begin to sneak in… may they create cracks where faith in Christ can grow!
I was re-reading “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Kimmerer and came upon this quote: “In Potawatomi 101, rocks are animate, as are mountains and water and fire and places. Beings are imbued with spirit…” In the book, Dr. Kimmerer discusses the tug of war between her scientific self and her Native spiritual self, and the knowing related to each.
My Christian self should not have this dichotomy. Am I not told that the very rocks would cry out, and that the world aches for the day of the Lord’s return? Are not rocks cut with human tools unfit for use on God’s altars? Nowhere am I told that the animate universe is inanimate.
In this conviction, I share my thoughts with a dear Pagan friend. But where she can tread, I am foresworn. For I may not worship created things – and it is so easy to slide into worship when the creation is as beautiful and wonderous as it is. There are those who would take something innocent and twist it, make it an open door – and those creatures are not such you would ever choose to invite.
Job 31:26-28 If I have looked at the sun when it shone,
Or the moon going in splendor,
And my heart was secretly enticed,
And my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
That too would have been a guilty deed calling for judgment,
For I would have denied God above.
So how then do we walk in the world, knowing the universe is animate and yet not worshipping it, but only its Creator?
Like so many other things, I think it comes back to the ethic of stewardship. This bit of earth that I have been given, it is mine to delight in, and it is mine to use. But it is not mine to use up, nor to waste. Trees I have, and their fruits are delicious – but firstfruits belong to God. How does this attach to an animate universe? Simple. My relation to a tree that has spirit as well as wood is the relation of a caretaker, in something of the same way I would relate to a farm animal, or even a pet. The idea that I, little me, fallen self, might be considered worthy to take care of something so wonderful fills me with humility. Who am I?
So yes, I think there is far more to this world than the eye can see. I wish we could share these ideas once again and wonder together. Isn’t wonder the first step to awe, and awe the appropriate reaction to our Creator?