The Voice of God In The Songs of Birds

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"Why is the land ravaged, scorched like a wasteland un-traversed? The Lord answered: Because they have abandoned my law, which I have set before them and have not followed it or listened to my voice" Jeremiah 9:11-15

I can't help but reflect on the environmental calamities that beset the planet. The climate heats, crops fail, famine looms in more and more parts of the developing world. I truly believe that this is a sort of a divine retributions for our sins. I don't mean in the conventional sense, that is, lightning bolts tossed from heaven by an angry avenging God, but a retribution where human kind is the instrument of our own misery.

The planet is a complex organism that can take huge amounts of abuse and continue to live. but with each injury we inflict upon her, she grows weaker and less able to sustain us. When we slaughter her forests for timber and tar sands oil, she becomes less able to provide us with the oxygen we need to live. Terra's ability to cleanse the atmosphere of heat trapping gasses is eroded. These factors in turn impact soil and water and ultimately, food production. Storms increase in frequency and intensity causing widespread damage and death. Thousands die in floods and slides. Entire communities are buried alive.

The extraction/exploitation economy also produces huge amounts of waste, both solid and chemical. Water is fouled and huge tracts of ocean become little more then lifeless garbage piles. Combined with over fishing, a vital source of food is destroyed aggravating world hunger and killing the livelihoods of countless multitudes of human beings, not to mentioned the impact on animal and plant species.

We are witnessing a time of "Old Testament" wrath but it is not the wrath of an angry deity but the wrath of human folly. The good news is that the Lord is a forgiving God who loves her children. We can be forgiven and avert our deserved punishment if we repent. This repentance is more then a matter of fervent prayer (although that certainly would not hurt) it is more a matter of penance. We must live everyday as if it is Lent. To give up destructive luxury that deprives others of the basic necessities of life. To control our greed. To act with generosity not only to the other members of our human family but to the planet and her natural systems. To cease to rape and pillage our mother earth and start returning to her the health and beauty that was the gift of God to us for our enjoyment and survival. Our creed must be to give back, not continue to take. To live for life, not for profit. To live simply so that all, including the planet, might live.

The voice of God is in the clean wind rustling through the trees. The pounding ocean surf as it performs her creative dance upon beach and rock. The song of birds and the buzz of insects. The call of coyotes, the elephants trumpet and the roar of big cats. The miracle of photosynthesis and life down to the smallest level. These are all the voice of God that has become lost in our wanton greed and mindless materialism. Not until we once again hear this voice in the very depths of our souls will we ever prosper, or even survive.