To be out in nature, re-confirming our connection to that which we did not make, is a form of worship for many people. In fact, it is easy to make the case that many of our society’s deepest problems stem from our dis-association with the natural world. Images of nature permeate our music, our poetry, our liturgy as our understanding of God evolves away from the idea of a supernatural being. Nature provides the metaphors, as in Denise Levertov’s poem “Witness”:
Sometimes the mountain
is hidden from me in veils
of cloud, sometimes
I am hidden from the mountain
in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,
when I forget or refuse to go
down to the shore or a few yards
up the road, on a clear day,
to reconfirm
that witnessing presence.
We are the stewards of this wondrous earth
With all its teeming life of priceless worth;
In all creation God is thus revealed
In birds and beasts, in forests and each field;
May the peace of God surround you
Like the trees of the forest
May the peace of God warm you all over
Like the sun in the sky
Shafts of light
Through cathedral windows.
Dappled shade
Upon the leaves
Beneath my feet.
