Joining Our Work to Heaven's Gift

This summer I had one of those rare lifetime moments when past and future met. The occasion was my grandmother's 100th birthday. Family had come from around the country and the world, including favorite nephews from Sweden and grandchildren from Turkey. To celebrate this rare and precious grandmother who had given me so much would have been enough. But for me the day was doubly blessed.

Nine days before the celebration, our son Soren was born. And because my wife is much tougher than I (and doesn't like to miss parties), she insisted that Soren and she make the trip to Michigan as well. And so, in a sunlit restaurant in western Michigan, we had the chance to present our nine day old son to my 100 year old grandmother. Smooth baby skin just days old, held by 100 year old skin of so many experiences. I will never forget the moment.

That experience came back to me as I thought about the creation theme in this issue of the magazine. What did this earth look like 100 years ago when my grandmother was born? What will be left when Soren is 75? How much have we lost in such a short span of years? Even in this post 9/11 world, I fear our own destruction of the planet more than I do terrorism.

Wendell Berry is the poet who speaks most to my heart on matters of the land. He who has lived, walked, and worked the land is he who writes most eloquently about it. He writes,

It is the destruction of the world
in our own lives that drives us
half insane, and more than half.
To destroy that which we were given
in trust: how will we bear it?

Unfortunately, I bear it quite well most of the time. The complexity of earthcare comes in when I start thinking about what it means to move beyond sentimental feelings of sunsets and whales. The bumper sticker I saw the other day applies to the environment as well as war. It bluntly asked, "How Do Your Choices Contribute to The Causes Of War?" I find that to be a tough but good question.

For instance, am I willing, as the Dutch are, to pay a "disassembly tax" for cars and other products? They do this so that the true cost of the product, including its disposal, is reflected in the price. Am I willing to alter eating habits, wear different clothes, use my car less and protest crimes against creation? Am I at least willing to rinse out my plastic baggies and use them over and over again as my grandmother did 40 years ago before there was an environmental movement?

I balk; I justify; I make excuses. What will be left of this gift of creation for Soren?

We join our work to Heaven's gift,
Our hope to what is left,
That field and woods at last agree
In an economy
Of widest worth.
High Heaven's Kingdom come on earth.
Imagine Paradise. O dust, arise!

The farmer Berry speaks the vision laid out in Genesis. We join our work--including our choices, our consumerism, our lifestyle--to the gift of creation. The goal is an economy 'of widest worth'. Earth's gifts for all of God's people, not just us. That I believe is what the Biblical writers meant by "having dominion over the earth"; that is what they meant when they talked about the kingdom of God. We (and I) are a long way from it.

Now I have reached the age
of judgement giving sorrow
that many men have come to,
the verdict of regret,
remembering the world
once better than it is,
my old walkways beneath
the vanished trees, and friends
lost now in loss of trust.

And I recall myself
more innocent than I am,
gone past coming back
in the history of flaw,
except Christ dead and risen
in my own flesh shall judge,
condemn, and then forgive.

All poems are taken from A Timbered Choir, by Wendell Berry

Doug Wysockey-Johnson is the Executive Director of Faith At Work. He, his wife Kathryn, their daughter Isabel Marie, and their son Soren William live in Arlington VA. Read about his call and vision for his journey ahead.