Each of us in Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions has come to the organization from different faith traditions and from very different perspectives. To me the call to enjoy, protect, and sustain our natural world and the understanding that the human and natural worlds are really one, came to me through experiencing that world and trying to capture it in images.
But honestly, I am always disappointed with my meager abilities to capture the moments I revere. All I can capture is a fleeting image, not the smell of a hemlock forest, the feel of sea spray, the sound of frogs chirping, or the touch of a sunflower. I also cannot recreate the shared experience I have in the wilderness with my wife or sons. So I depend on my pictures to recall all of that.
John Muir said it best: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
So please join me on a visual and spiritual journey into the natural world — our truest home!
The LORD says, “Do not remember past events; do not ponder ancient history. See, I’m doing something new; now it sprouts up—don’t you notice it? I’m making a way in the desert, streams in the wilderness.” Isa 43:16-19
But ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you; In God’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being. Job 12:7-10
Dance, dance wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance said he . . . .
But ask the fish of the sea will declare to you. In God’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being. Job 12:7-10
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; Ps. 8: 3–4
But ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; In God’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being. Job 12:7-10
“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” John Muir
But ask the animals, and they will teach you; In God’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being. Job 12:7-10
May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works — who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. Ps 104
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Ps. 8: 3–4
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Amos 5:24
What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. John 1:3-5
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. Ps. 23
“As religious communities gradually awaken to the wisdom of their traditional beliefs, they will also begin to recognize that the environment is not only a political or a technological issue. For it is, in fact, primarily a religious and spiritual issue. Any form of religiosity or spirituality that remains disconnected from outward creation is ultimately also uninvolved with the inward mystery of all things.” – Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew,
Archbishop of Constantinople
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” Henry David Thoreau
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds…. Phil 4:7
Faith Alliance would like to thank board member David Kepley for this beautiful photo essay contribution to our blog.
But ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; In God’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being. Job 12:7-10
