Sacred Moments: Intimacy with God's Creation | Summer 2024

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by Shamaine Chambers King

“There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset

and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it," said my mother.

The landscape of my childhood was filled with trees (pecan, southern magnolia, pine, gum ball, dogwood, oak, willow, fig, and whatnot), gardens and melon patches, wild blackberries and honeysuckle, and all of it rooted n the red clay of East Texas. Filled with iron oxide, that red clay provided countless hours of entertainment for us kids. Who needs toy stores when you can climb trees and play in the mud? We could spend all day making caves and creating people, animals, houses, villages from that rich, rust colored earth.

From Our First Breath to Our Last
When I hear the Genesis 2 story of God forming the first human from the soil and breathing life into their nostrils, I can almost feel that red clay squishing through my fingers. We humans are made of clay and air—earth mixed with water, formed into bodies, and filled with wind to become enfleshed human beings. We are this miraculous mix of humus and God-breath, earthbound yet aloft in soul and spirit—feet on the earth, mind in the clouds, and eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:2). From our first breath to our last, we are elemental (embodying the powers of nature), made, as Carl Sagan quipped, from the stuff of stars.

Longing for our Elemental Nature
In the last few centuries, we humans have distanced ourselves from our elemental nature, moving to cities, outsourcing the procurement of shelter and food to professional builders, large-scale agriculture, grocery stores, and delivery vehicles. We no longer walk through the fields but put our shoes on the pavement and drive down the highway. Yet we yearn for the wonders of nature and are drawn to wild places and night skies. We long to be outside, to garden, to wander, to travel to the National Parks…

by Guest Contributor Deaconess Irene DeMaris, Iowa Interfaith Power & Light 
 

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What might be our response to the caring for God's creation? Iowa Interfaith Power & Light is one organization that's mission is to inspire action in faith communities. It is our privilege to have Deaconess Irene DeMaris share with us the vision of Iowa IPL and call to join in the faith-based stewardship movement. 

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Iowa Interfaith Power & Light (Iowa IPL) is the state’s only Iowa based faith-rooted organization focused on climate change in our state. Over four years ago I began living into my calling at Iowa IPL where I dove into what our mission meant to me and our supporters across the state. Iowa IPL’s mission is to empower Iowans of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on the climate crisis. It aligned (and still does) with my calling to empower people of faith to root into their faith tradition and seek justice out in the world. 

Since 2006, Iowa IPL has had many chapters, but for me, the most exciting one is on the horizon. As executive director, the path has never been more clear and exciting. I don’t just say this because I work at Iowa IPL. Iowa needs Iowa IPL and people of faith like you, and we are uniquely positioned to continue to have an impact on the climate crisis in Iowa.

I believe that our work should inspire and then activate faith communities like yours to lead the way in creating a sustainable, climate-resilient future through education, advocacy, and practical environmental actions.