Awe and Wonder: Finding God Through Creation
I reluctantly grabbed my camera and raincoat as soon as our 3 month old daughter fell asleep for a nap. I was heading into our suburban yard to take nature photographs, an Easter 2020 celebration for myself. I had created a jar of 50 mini Easter activities for myself to help bring the joy of the Resurrection into my everyday life. Some activities were based in prayer, some were surface-level self-care, and others centered around lifting up loved ones. I randomly pulled one out of the jar each day of the Easter season. When I wrote this particular celebration, “Take nature pictures in the yard,” I assumed that it would take place on a beautiful sunny day with all the plants in full bloom. Safe to say, I was a bit grumpy that it was raining. But it had been a long time since I had turned to nature for solace and hoped that the Lord would move through this moment.
As I explored the previous owners’ landscaping, with a sprinkling rain creating a meditative drum on my hood, I felt that the Spirit of the Lord had designed this exact moment for me. I discovered many things on the verge of blooming, saw new types of ground cover, marveled in the cleansing power of rain, and captured many beautiful, tiny moments. As someone who thrives on National Park adventures, mountain vistas at the end of hikes, and wildflower photography, I was amazed by the glory of Creation in my own backyard.
Oftentimes, we think about Creation and care of Creation in the grandest sense. I immediately jump to memories of Yosemite Valley or the rugged Alaskan wilderness. The scale of protecting these famous landscapes can feel so intimidating to me that I sometimes do not act. It was humbling and motivating to explore my very own backyard and notice all of the blessings of the Lord sprinkled around my daily life. These too, are worth working to preserve.
Mary Beth Keenan, @mbkeenan_captures.
In the encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis speaks to both the pressing need and the spiritual call of protecting our common home. He says, “[T]he ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion…Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” (#217) As humans, we are not separate from Creation. Rather, we are both the jewel and the stewards of the natural world. Creation was God’s first gift to humankind, and it is a form of worship, as well as our duty, to care for what the Creator has crafted. We might not be called to large scale environmental work, but we are each called to contribute to the conservation of our world in some small way.
I have now tried to take nature photography in my own yard every couple of months since that rainy spring day last year. It serves many purposes. It grounds me in a spirituality of celebrating the seemingly mundane. It reminds me of the beauty inherently around us and the rhythms of the seasons. It forces me to quite literally preserve these lessons and flora through film.
What spiritual practice can you incorporate into your monthly routine to ground yourself in the glory of Creation? Maybe it is taking a walk around your immediate environs to snap pictures or draw sketches. Or it is a monthly hike or nature walk at a park near your house. Perhaps you journal about one thing you saw out of your bedroom window each week. Maybe you read a scripture passage or Saint Francis’ Canticle of the Sun once a month. I pray that by incorporating a nature-based prayer into your life, you too can view Creation as our home before Heaven and worthy of protection.
“If we approach nature and the environment without…openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.” Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, #11.
Meet Mary Beth Keenan
Mary Beth is an adventurer who seeks the glory of God in all of creation. You'll often find her pulled over on the side of a hiking trail taking photos of wildflowers. An advocate for self-care and authenticity, she loves running, listening to others' stories, and gluten-free baked goods. She is wife to the calmest tinkerer around, mom to a strong, curious baby girl, and a librarian in the making. You can connect with her on Instagram @mbkeenan_captures.