A Devotion for the Things God Makes

When my husband and I were dating during our senior year of college, I was taking a course on Jewish history and customs. For one of my assignments, I had to make a traditional Jewish food to bring to class. I chose to make a lekach, a honey-sweetened cake that is made at the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah in hopes of ensuring a sweet New Year.

I spent my day in the kitchen, measuring and baking, hoping to make a delicious version of the cake for my class. That afternoon, I brought Travis a piece of cake to try. Sitting at the table in our friend’s house, I handed him a napkin with a slice of cake. He took one bite and spit (!) it right back out.

My mouth dropped open: “Is it really that bad?”

His response: “I hate coffee. I just can’t eat anything with coffee in it. I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s good, but I can’t do it.”

Something I didn’t know about Travis then was his coffee disdain. And the recipe for the lekach included over a cup of very strong coffee.

We laugh at this story from our early dating life now, but in the moment I was not laughing. I was angry, and embarrassed. Angry that he’d had that reaction, embarrassed that my hard work, my care and effort had produced something he viewed as bitter and subpar. I had brought this person that I was falling in love with something that I thought he would like and enjoy, and something I had worked hard to make and it had been met with rejection.

When I explained this to him, he (of course) felt incredibly bad and apologized profusely.

Later, after many more “I’m sorrys” and probably some apology flowers, Travis told me:

“I think I understand now why you were so upset by my reaction. How we react to something says a lot about what we think about the creator.”

YES! That was exactly why I had felt so upset – I took his rejection of the thing I created to feel as a rejection of me.

This story, now a part of our relationship’s funny moments, was also a lesson for me in how I think about God and God’s creation.

How we treat (a) creation says a whole lot about what we think of the Creator.

Now this can extend to many things, but for me is most powerful in how I think about the natural world and human beings.

We read in John’s Gospel the familiar words “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).

In Greek, the word for world is kosmon, or the cosmos. The love that God has is for not just the earth, but indeed the entire cosmos, for all of creation. That is why Jesus commands the disciples: “Go to all the world and proclaim good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).

How we care for the creation before us says a lot about how we care for God.

In God’s creation we see and hear both goodness and groaning; we see goodness in the way life is nurtured and sustained, in the way food is grown and flowers bloom, in the song of the bird and the sun’s warming rays.

We also hear the groaning of creation – the stain of pollution on our oceans and forests, the floods and storms that ravage cities and homes, the extinction of entire species of animals.

Our work of Disaster Recovery is so much about tending to the creation of God before us – helping to mend broken pieces and places, walking with people whose lives have seen neglect and rejection. It is about proclaiming, through our work and our lives, our love and care for all that God has created.

The work that we do literally makes us co-workers with God in renewing and restoring all of creation. What a gift and a challenge!

When you’re feeling the heaviness of this task, remember: the same Spirit that hovered over the waters at Creation is the same Spirit that hovers over us today. It is that Spirit of God that fills us, energizes us each day, and empowers us to work for the day in which all creation will be healed.

Let’s take good care of each other.

With you on the journey,

Chaplain Amy