24th April 2024

This week I received emails suggesting a response to “Earth Day” – I should book train tickets to limit my carbon footprint, or a holiday to go walking in nature! Consume more to help the planet … hmmm? I prefer Sam’s Sunday sermon challenge to us, to get out and look around us at the natural world and to consider what it tells us about God.

Springtime somehow encourages us to do this, unbidden. A friend remarked that she always wants to press pause at this time of year, so that spring develops at a slower pace and she can savour it more.

This week I have enjoyed seeing the copper beach tree outside our window come into leaf – the leaf buds becoming more noticeable until the leaves unfurl – as if someone has begun delicately painting leaves in an Impressionist painting – leaves that will soon become substantial enough to provide shelter from the April showers.

The Psalmist marvelled at God’s creation of human beings too:

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well. (Psalm 139: 13-14)

As an undergraduate I was delighted and surprised to discover this quote at the beginning of one of my textbooks. Learning about the pattern, processes and design that underpin human life is truly a source of awe and wonder too. A developmental biologist shares how understanding biological detail helps them see God at work here: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made . This is quite fun: The Molecular Shape of You (Ed Sheeran Parody) | A Capella Science (youtube.com) .  

Ruth Allen