"With Respect in Creation (All Creation Groans)"

WITH RESPECT IN CREATION (All Creation Groans)

All creation groans
as earth, our fragile home
turns in paths that lead to devastation.
Fish and bird and tree
threatened until we
will live with respect in creation.

Skies and seas and land
created for God’s plan
not for our own selfish domination.
Drought or rising sea
threaten until we
will live with respect in creation.

All creation sighs
we hear the Spirit’s cries
calling for rebirth and restoration
Warmth for every heart,
healing of each part
that lives with respect in creation.

All creation sings
let fields and forests ring
as we make this holy declaration.
Mountains, lakes, rejoice
joining every voice
to live with respect in creation.
We’ll live with respect in creation.

Here are some of the references (scriptural and otherwise) that are behind the lyrics of this song.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;”
Romans 8: 22

“We are called to be the church… to live with respect in Creation”
A New Creed, the United Church of Canada

“…that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
Romans 8: 26b

“…while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed”
John Wesley describing his “Aldersgate experience”

“Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,…”
From Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee by Henry Van Dyke

Every day we see news stories of nature and natural disasters that indicate that something is very amiss in God’s creation. That concern was the inspiration behind this hymn.
The first verse speaks of how human activity is harming the environment – everything that lives in the water, air or land (symbolized by fish, bird and tree) is threatened. In the second verse, that is turned around; because of the way we have treated the environment, it now threatens us – not only through drought and rising sea, but global climate change which threatens all life on earth as we know it.
It is estimated that the homes of hundreds of millions are threatened in the coming decades due to rising ocean levels. Creation will continue to threaten us until we, as our New Creed calls us to do, will “live with respect in creation.” We need our hearts warmed to make a new commitment to change the way that we relate to the environment. Let us pray that we can learn to do that before it’s too late; let us pray and work and act so that we can bring rebirth, restoration and healing to God’s creation.