The Goodness of his Creation

 The goodness of creation

God’s attitude towards His creation 

The Bible is the story of God’s relationship with His creation, and it begins with an inspiring account of the beginning of that relationship. The story shows God’s delight and pleasure in crafting and forming interesting and diverse spaces, sights, sounds, tastes, and textures. Each day builds on the day before, creating an interconnected web, and every moment of creation brings something new and beautiful. On the sixth day God created many kinds of animals. God also made a very specific and special being in the image and likeness of Godself –humankind. And at every moment, God sees that the creation is good. That is the unmistakable message of the opening chapter of the Bible. Six times God declares what he has just done to be ‘good’, and the seventh time ‘very good’. The first thing God did next was to bless humankind and all the plants and the animals that had just been created throughout all the earth. It was an invitation into relationship with God, into fellowship with all creations on the earth. We live in community with the entirety of God’s creation, and we have a responsibility to give fellowship for God’s creations. This knowledge helps to instill in us a rich and abiding love for creation –a love that guides our daily actions and brings us closer to our Creator. The Bible affirms that all creation already praises/worships God. Indeed, John’s vision of the whole universe, centered around the throne of God reaches its climactic crescendo of praise when he says ‘Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and allthat is in them’ bringing worship ‘to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb’ (Rev. 5:13).Now, we may not be able to grasp or explain how creation praises God. Worshipping God in a fellowship with the creation enhances the goodness of the creation. The three principles that keep the goodness of the creation are:

1. The principle of intrinsic value The repeated affirmation, ‘God saw that it was good’, is the seal of God’s approval on the whole universe in all its functioning. God created the universe and all its components with an intrinsic worth/value. The whole earth as a complex ecological system and all the components of those systems-from rocks to rainbows-have worth because they are the part of these systems. Earth is a living creature with an intrinsic value. The formation of Adam from "the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7) highlights the connection between human beings and the earth. Adam, the word for "human being," is a play on adamah, the word for "ground" or "earth." Everything created by God has an intrinsic value and nothing in the universe is neither a waste nor useless.

In the face of a deluge, God commanded Noah: “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come, to you to be kept alive”. But deluges need not be only of the watery kind: they can also be floods of people sprawling over the land and displacing God’s creatures. “Be fruitful and increase in number” (Gen 1:23). To those who would expand across the land at the expense of all other creatures, the prophet warns: “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land” (Isa 5:8). The story of Noah has much to say about biodiversity. In Genesis chapter 9 the phrases ‘every animal’ or ‘every living creature’ is mentioned six times as well as ‘every bird’ twice. This is a biodiverse chapter, but most importantly God’s covenant was not just with Noah and his descendants, but with the animals. It is quite obvious that it is not God’s will that the animals perish or become extinct. All species were saved in the ark and to be protected through the covenant. God has provided an ecosystem suitable for its intrinsic value. For Poisonous animals God allotted shola forests. Man entered the ecosystem of poisonous animals, hence they are now coming to the plains. We failed to understand the intrinsic value of each components and the ecosystem surrounding it. Economists value only those things which has a monetary value. From the point of view of Economics the value anything in the universe is determined by demand of the Market. This is against the biblical perspective. 2. The principle of purpose The Universe, Earth and all its components, are a part of a dynamic cosmic design within which each

piece has a place in the overall goal of that design. God designed each component to play a role in the total wellbeing of the Earth. The goodness of creation is of value to God and was created with a purpose. Thus, e.g., Psalm 104 celebrates not only those aspects of creation which serve human needs (crops and domestic animals), but also those that have no immediate connection with human life - the wild places and wild creatures that live there.

The creation of Mangroves and Frogs are the two best examples to illustrate the principle of purpose. The Mangroves were considered as a ‘useless’ vegetation. The conversion of mangrove habitat into tourist resorts, contributed significantly to the catastrophic loss of human lives and settlements during the 2004 tsunami. Myanmar and Maldives suffered very less from the killing spree of the tsunami because the tourism industry had so far not spread its tentacles to the virgin mangroves and coral reefs surrounding the coastline. If only the mangroves were intact, the damage from tsunami would have been greatly minimized. It happened earlier in Bangladesh. In 1960, a tsunami wave hit the coast in an area where mangroves were intact. There was not a single human loss.

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Frogs are an important indicator of ecosystems. Frogs are also friends of farmers. Frogs feed on many insects and pests that frequently destroy the crops. Also, they are consumed by fish, some large insects, snakes, lizards, larger frogs, birds and small mammals. In the food chain, frogs play a big role in maintaining a healthy environment. Many of the human activities are unhealthy to frogs and their habitats. We drain the wetlands to claim land for cultivation, housing and tourist resorts thereby causing habitat destruction. The extinction of frogs, results in the multiplication of mosquitoes and other insects which will spread fatal diseases. If we could understand the purpose of the creation of Mangroves and Frogs and the role they have been playing in nature, we won’t destroy mangroves or kill frogs. Everything created by God has a purpose and nothing in the universe is neither waste nor useless.

3. The principle of interconnectedness All components in the Earth are mutually interconnected or dependent on each other for life and survival. Man is not alone, we share this earth with 80 million other species. The relationship between these species is connected in a complex web of interaction. People who profess faith in God should discover and acknowledge the contributions that species and abiota make to their shared ecosystems. Actions that inhibit their contributions will be identified and prevented. In the web of life, every animal and every plant relies on other plants and animals to survive. All animals and plants in a sense work together to survive, for instance, bees visit the flowers of plants and take nectar and use it to make honey. While the bee is collecting nectar, it usually gets a powder on it called pollen. Bees fly from one flower to the next, carrying this pollen. Some of the pollen falls off into the flowers, and the plants use that to reproduce! The plant is helping the bees, and the bees are helping the plants.

An amazing variety of habitats, people, plants, and animals are all interconnected in a fragile web of life we call “biodiversity.” And every member is essential in keeping this web in balance. About 1.4 million species have been identified, and researchers estimate that millions more have yet to be counted. Thousands of species may be vanishing each year as a result of pollution, over-harvesting,habitat degradation, and other human actions. God created the web of life which is interdependent. A loss of one species will break one link in the web which will weaken the whole web.

Conclusion The creation is a symphony where we find a variety of creatures each singing and worshipping the Maker in accordance with its unique character, different from creatures of another ‘make.’ The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs. For a rich state of affairs we have to acknowledge the intrinsic worth of each components of the creation, the purpose of each component of the creation, and the web of the creation. Shalom, in other words, is the fellowship of the creation to keep the goodness of the creation.

Consider another section of Scripture in which God inspired a psalm revealing more about the Goodness of His creation. "O Lord," the psalmist writes, "how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions . . . You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth" (Psalm:104:24, 30).