Creation's Slow and Powerful Rhythms

I recently came across this observation by Michael Crichton: “To the earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can’t imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven’t got the humility to try.”

A similar sentiment was expressed by Thornton Wilder said in his play Our Town: “Oh earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you.” The same could be said of God. In our short human time span, how can we begin to imagine the slow and powerful rhythms of God and of earth?

Humility, echoing scripture, says that we shouldn’t even attempt to understand the majesty of God and God’s creation, because in trying to understand them, we are trying to control them. We are much more likely to enter into relationship with God and earth when we surrender to mystery—to not knowing—and  open ourselves to sacred surprises.

Today I took a walk and saw cottonwood leaves shimmering in the breeze, sunlight dancing on water, and grass growing in sidewalk cracks. One of earth’s vast and powerful rhythms is optimism that comes from participation in the paschal cycle of death and life. We can despair at the degradation of earth and the suffering of its inhabitants, or we can do the best we can from where we are with what we’ve got, and put the rest in God’s hands. Though we may never attain understanding, we can count on experiencing the joy of transformation.