Calling Forth Connections with Creation

When a comet hit Jupiter several years ago, I went to Valley Forge Park to look through a large telescope. While I observed several interesting formations in the sky, the Andromeda Galaxy captured my imagination.   It is the closest galaxy to our own, the Milky Way, yet lies two million light years away.  As I gazed, I realized that what I was seeing was both now and two million years ago, and that’s an amazing thing about the expansive universe of which we are a part. The realization stretched my understanding of who I am.   Andromeda is one of billions of galaxies with billions of stars.   Our sun is one of those stars.  

The amazing story of the universe and its unfolding during the past 13 billion years has became part of my awareness.  The evolving scientific and spiritual story of creation is the basic context of all that I am, indeed of all human experience.   The physical connection I have with the bacteria in my body, the ecosystems around me, with the distant stars and galaxies, the mystery of the unity of creation, strikes a deep spiritual chord within me. The environment of the natural world is not outside me but is who I am. The Spirit is truly the breath of life that blows in the wind.

Since the events of September eleventh, I realize in a new way how out of touch our modern industrial civilization is with the natural rhythms of the universe.  Terrorism,  war, economic and political power, religious and racial intolerance are not the driving forces of the universe.   They are the patterns of people out of touch with who they are, patterns defined by centuries of living in a world that does not recognize its unity with the Creator and the awesome wonder of creation.

While serving for twenty years as Director of Social and Ethical Responsibility in Investments for National Ministries, my vision of life stretched far beyond the bounds of the job and the denomination. My mission, now as then, is one of transforming institutions and perceptions to build a society in touch with the natural world, one where the kinship of all creation creates a reign of justice that promotes a profound awe and respect for all creation and each of its parts.

Today as an independent consultant with corporations and non-profits, I work to build a society that sustains the wonderful and mysterious web of life unfolding before us.  As a minister no longer professionally connected to the institutional church, I continue to feel a profound connection to a larger reality that gives life to everything. Indeed, I see my calling to be a missionary for the earth, for the Spirit of the universe.   Recognizing my connection with the natural world and with all forms of life is the essence that empowers me.   This mysterious unity of creation provides a powerful pull that helps me focus on the larger reality of which I am a tiny but important piece.

J. Andy Smith III
February 12, 2002