Is God dying in creation?

Generally the living natural world perpetuates. Flowers, trees, plants and even insects live, grow, reproduce and die. However, our world is facing changes. We all know about the vociferous demise of the rainforests, the knock on effect on global warming; we have heard about our inappropriate use of the world's resources, the depletion of gas and oil reserves. Animal speices have become endangered and extinguished. The cause is the actions of the human race. Perhaps part of the problem has not been our fault - out of our hands completely - is global warming a simple re-occuring of phenomena in a cycle of the earth's history? what occurs to me is that it may be also, in genius and unfathomable ways, a prophetic reflection God is allowing us to exist in. The reflection is this; by our selfishness and unjust ways we are killing the world; by our selfishness and unjust ways we are killing God in our world. I don't mean God is dying, I mean he is being pushed away from our consciousness, our acceptance, our enjoyment, our relation. I believe God would have us see our attitude and actions towards him as a planet of people, played out in the natural world. Psalms says "the skies declare the glory of God and the earth proclaim his handiwork." God has always been inherently and implicitly evident through creation. In the hurt of creation we now see the hurt of our Father. I'm not saying God has caused the struggles of the world - from drought to ice caps melting to the rising cost of bread - I'm saying that is our own doing, but somehow, God who works all things together for the good of those who love him, incredibly uses even this unfortunate state as a means of communicating with us. In a sunset we easily observe the beauty of our creator - in our treatment of over-farmed lands and destroyed natural habitats we see his pain, and are reminded of the similar way we treat him spiritually - enjoying what he has provided but gluttonously ravaging his gifts and ignoring his existence.

This is not true of every person and every individual or every nation, but possibly a just image of humanity as a whole. In many ways we respect and enjoy creation - and in many ways we connect with YHWH as we should. BUt this is not a new image. Not a new message. God has been driven by us from the garden of Eden, from the Mountain top of Moses, from the Tent of the Israelites and from the Temple in Jerusalem - he seeks to be close to us and we push him out of our lives. We can repair our relationship with the living world and we can repair our relationship with the living God.

This is not the only metaphor God has installed in order for us to discern the state of things - next blog... Is God dying in Marriage! Is he dying in Family? Are we killing Him in technoolgy, busy-ness...