We often watch weather reports on our local TV station. In nearly every broadcast, the meteorologist uses the term \u201cMother Nature\u201d. The context in which they say this implies that this mysterious \u201cmother\u201d force gives birth to and controls the weather. I\u2019m sure they don\u2019t really mean this, being scientists, but the term really irks me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concept of nature as our mother goes back to Greek mythology and the goddess Gaia, originating in the 12th or 13th century B.C. It has persisted through many centuries and cultures through today. Many who profess to be atheists bow down to \u201cMother Nature\u201d, since in their minds, that\u2019s all there is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Scripture has another story. Genesis 1:1, \u201cIn the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth\u201d. Psalm 19:1, \u201cThe heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.\u201d Paul refers to the creation in Romans 1:20, \u201cFor since the creation of the world God\u2019s invisible qualities\u2014his eternal power and divine nature\u2014have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we see Jesus, \u201cthe image of the invisible God\u201d, exercising power over nature through his miracles.\u00a0 Beyond the healings and creative miracles, he walked on water, calmed storms, raised the dead to life.\u00a0 The Creator of the Universe controls nature, not a mythological mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although we see God\u2019s handiwork in nature, Paul writes in Romans 1:25, that people “…worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s the irony: since Paul\u2019s day, scientific knowledge about the complexity of created things has exploded.\u00a0 From the intricacies of atoms, molecules, and cells, the human body (fearfully and wonderfully made), to the wonders in the vast regions of space, there is an unmistakable design to all creation.\u00a0 This design is \u201cclearly seen\u201d.\u00a0 With even more evidence to support God\u2019s handiwork today, many still refuse to believe in the creator God. Rather, they cling to the myth that everything evolved through natural processes over vast amounts of time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Check out this video interview<\/a> with Eric Metaxas about his book, Is Atheism Dead?<\/a> A major section of his book deals with the creation and the miraculous nature of how everything fits together perfectly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how do we, as believers and lovers of God, relate to nature, our environment? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than nature as our mother, we are the parent here!\u00a0 God has given us dominion over the earth and he has called us to steward it (Genesis 1:26-28<\/a>).\u00a0 He also told the Israelites to take care of the land (Exodus 23:10-11<\/a>).\u00a0 God graciously provides us with everything we need, including sun and rain to grow food and raw materials to use for living life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a bonus, He also provides incredible beauty in nature, which we must protect and preserve. We experience that beauty with awe and wonder, and as Psalm 19<\/a> points out, we see the glory of God in his creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a big difference between environmentalists who don\u2019t believe in God as the creator, and those of us who do. Since this earth is all there is for them, they are trying to make it last forever. In a sense, it’s “worship of created things rather than the creator”. But we know that this creation is finite. Peter writes that the earth and the universe we have now will be destroyed, and that God will create \u201cnew heavens and a new earth\u201d (2 Peter 3:10-13<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, we are called to take care of this beautiful creation that God has given us, living lives of holiness and godliness, and looking forward to the day when God renews all things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We often watch weather reports on our local TV station. In nearly every broadcast, the meteorologist uses the term \u201cMother Nature\u201d. The context in which they say this implies that this mysterious \u201cmother\u201d force gives birth to and controls the weather. I\u2019m sure they don\u2019t really mean this, being scientists,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[161],"tags":[147,146,148,145],"class_list":["post-3041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-earth","tag-environment","tag-mother-earth","tag-nature"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/searchingscripture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Yosemite-Valley-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1912&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3041"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3701,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions\/3701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Christian’s role<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Earth: Our Temporary Home<\/h3>\n\n\n\n