Not long ago, I walked by a table of folks comparing qualities of different trucks for different types of use. Heading out the door, I heard one man say to the other, “Say, how’s that manifold holding up?”
Engines, you see, pretty much need a manifold to run. If it is cracked, broken, busted—the engine dies and the driver is out of luck. So those who use engines do well to care for the manifolds.
No, this isn’t a Mechanics- Are-Us column. But, hearing that conversation drew my mind to the expression from the Psalm 104: How manifold are your works, O Lord.
It turns out that definitions for manifold include: many kinds, numerous and varied; having many different parts, elements, features, forms; doing or operating many things at once. (And in the case of engines: a chamber with several outlets through which a liquid is distributed.)
Many kinds, numerous and varied; with many different parts, many differing elements, features, forms. Ah… yes! It’s a beginning description of the work, and works, of God!
Where can we encounter this manifold-ness that is comprised of so many elements coming together in countless ways and combinations? Creation: all that surrounds you. Through the trees, rocks, bugs and bats, intricate biology, chemistry and physics of all universes and beyond, you are being, as I heard one person put it, “bombarded with the manifold works of God that are God’s glory by their existence.”
We are given the opportunity of knowing this is God’s creation and recognizing the testimony to God within. Along with that privilege comes our responsibility to care for this planet on which God has planted our feet, and the universe and universes that surround it.
To be sure, we can and should use it and enjoy it, for sustenance and for pleasure. But we are to remember it is God’s and that through its intricacy and majesty God is glorified.
In the natural flow of the biology God has created, there will be species that come and go, natural wonders that form and collapse. I see this as part of the evolution and continuing creation God has put in place. But when we humans, through our over-use or negligence or an “it’s there for the taking” outlook make decisions that lead to the extinction of a species or the dirtying of a resource, we are silencing or damaging forms of God’s glory.
Here in Cook County there is, thanks be to God, much to behold and enjoy. We hunt and fish for fun and food; take photos; collect rocks; cut trees for art, lumber, and heat; hike and ride trails; run dogs; garden and pick berries; watch birds. How good of God to allow us ways to see, taste, hear, touch, feel God’s glory. We experience the glory of God, whether we let ourselves notice or not. We can be thankful, and even as we use and enjoy what God allows us to experience, we can be protective.
There surely aren’t easy answers to questions about what level of impact our human presence makes. But we are unique. God has formed us with the capacity to ask the questions and the ability to make decisions about how heavy our impact will be. Recognizing the gifts of God to us, we can care for the manifold works of God, that they may continue being the glory of the Lord (Ps 104).
On the first week of each month, a guest columnist will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week’s contributor is Pastor Kristin Garey, Trinity Lutheran of Hovland
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