Living in Right Relationship with God’s Creation

2022 January Blog bySyndie Eardly ~ The idea of living in right relationship came up during a prayer session at Centering Space last fall, and I thought then what a wonderful idea it would be to commit to living in right relationship with God’s creation in 2022.

What does it mean to live in “right relationship” and how would we think of that in terms of creation?

Our first call to right relationship is, of course, with God. In Jesus the Christ, we have the perfect model. He dedicated time often to be in communication with God. This of course did not involve Jesus chattering at God, but rather listening to what God was saying and following where God was leading.

We can also think about living in right relationship with the people in our lives and indeed with all of humanity. Here we have the same challenge. The best way to live in right relationship with people is to become listeners and caregivers. Each relationship, each encounter is a holy one with much to teach us if we pay attention.

And now we come to the idea of living in right relationship to creation itself. It sometimes seems a hopeless effort when so many of the causes of damage to our environment are corporate endeavors largely out of our control.

However, raising our awareness of the interrelationship of all of nature can lead us to making small changes that can contribute to protecting our beautiful earth. As with the people in our lives, we can become listeners and caretakers of creation in a way that will restore us to right relationship with all of the earth.

Here are a few things to think about for 2022:

Take time to walk in nature and reflect on the abundance and beauty of plants and trees, insects and animals, earth and water, and the important role they play in providing the necessities upon which we depend for our very existence.

Pay attention to how you use resources, for instance, the food you eat and how it is packaged, the clothing you wear and the possessions in your home, and of course the energy you consume to heat and light your house and run your car.

Make small commitments to refrain from buying bottled water, walk your local errands, use cloth bags at the grocery, buy local fruits and vegetables – or better yet grow a few in your back yard, plant a tree, pick up trash in the neighborhood, create a compost heap in the backyard, conserve energy, and avoid the use of pesticides.

Living in right relationship is a call to prayerful awareness – a wonderful way to reconnect and restore our relationship to all of creation.