Our holiday celebrations often keep us indoors. In northern climates, this might be partly because the cold and snowy weather makes going outside a difficult and even unpleasant experience. We hurry from house to car and then into another warm house. In warm climates, the heat finds us scurrying between air conditioned buildings. But creation—including the weather— is a gift to be celebrated, not something simply to be controlled and altered. We lose our sense of wonder in nature when we become too absorbed in the structures of everyday life. Most of us have jobs and other responsibilities that keep us indoors. The people of the Bible lived much closer to the land than we do today. Navigating by the stars was something they did as a matter of course. Jesus’s parables reflect a deep knowledge of flocks, fields, and fishing. We can understand these stories better if we grow in our awareness of creation. Pope Francis, like his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, calls us to read God’s presence not only in our holy books but in the holiness of the world around us, plant and animal as well as human.
—from the book The Peace of Christmas: Quiet Reflections from Pope Francis
by Diane M. Houdek
2 thoughts on “Celebrate God’s Creation”
Experiencing God’s creation in the desert mountains of Arizona…to spot a single, small and delicate, purple flower which has worked its way up through the tiniest of cracks in a huge mountain boulder along our hiking trail always leaves me awestruck at the incredible beauty and wonder of God’s creation. He continues to bless and amaze us, if only we take a moment look. Peace and joy in Jesus Christ…
I’ve noticed that children are less likely to complain about the weather than adults. Children also know how to have fun and will play in the snow or even swim in very cold water! You’re not going to catch me swimming in cold water unless it’s a very hot day. If that makes me a sissy, then so be it. As far as extreme heat, I can’t function hardly at all.