Jesus’ biggest and most innovative decision was the manner in which he chose to preach.

He chose the way and the lifestyle of the storyteller, the parable-maker who fashions a new creation out of the holy materials of the only creation we all share in common: the birds, the lilies of the field, the fishes caught, the fig tree in bloom, the sheep versus the goats, the leaven in the bread, the mustard seeds of the world, and the rains that fall on the unjust and just alike.
His reverence for nature was so great that the creatures of nature were indeed his teachers, his professors, who he recognized instinctively were looking “on him with affectionate looks” and with truth to tell. 1
“Creation is all things and us.
It is us in relationship with all things.” *

“Creation is what the mystic is awakened to,
and what the prophet fights to sustain.”
“Every creature is a manifestation of the Cosmic Christ,
and that divinity permeates all of reality.”
Descartes states that the basis of his philosophy is the observation,
“I think, therefore I am.”
Creation Spirituality responds:
No!
How egocentric and self-conscious a starting point
for education and society this is!
Rather, we should say:
“Earth exists and therefore we are.”
Or,
“Creation begets and therefore we are.” 2
1. Adapted from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, p. 124.
2: See also Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth, pp. 7, 10, 90, 102-103.
* This statement could also be read as Fox’s definition of “panentheism” which is: “God is in all things, and all things are in God.” Mechthild of Magdeburg also wrote: “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw, and I knew I saw, all things in God and God in all things.”
Banner Image: The Sea of Galilee. Photo by Nemo. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
What is the “Good News” of Creation for you?
Recommended Reading

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
8 thoughts on “The Gospel of Creation, as told by Jesus: Nature’s Storyteller”
Creation is discoverable and we are on the path of discovery.
“Only Love Awaits Those Who Know Love”
If falling in love is humiliation, bring it on.
If seeing everything as if for the first time in all its wonder and awe is humiliation, bring it on.
If freedom, belonging and liberty from our past captivity is humiliation, bring it on.
If riding a rocket to the moon is humiliation, bring it on.
If shedding our old skin as if a snake, and not looking back at it is humiliation, bring it on.
If all of life is anew, refreshed, cleansed, then there is no looking back, no shame, no guilt.
If we are who we are, we are within the embrace of love, truth, joy, peace, stillness, wonder and awe.
If we suffer for love, we truly know it’s great truth and value.
A man or woman raised up, lives above and beyond the past, the ignorance, the humiliation of what life experienced was before love.
A life of love transcends the human experience and enters the Divine with all flavour of fruits to savour.
Enter and enjoy and do not look back, for only love awaits those who know love.
— BB.
The good news of creation, is that the living Spirit of the Divine, the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery, God… is in all matter. Although a mystery, this Spirit continously reveals itself, making itself known through all of creation, offering and giving of itself in so many infinite expressions and manifestations; reflecting, mirroring and teaching us many things.
When we walk humbly, surrendered in trust to this spiritual reality, we awaken to the mystic within; recognizing, acknowledging and responding to the beauty and goodness of this sacred communion and holy union of being in a continuous relationship of companionship with the Divine essence and presence within the all and the everything of creation. It’s really quite profoundly astonishing what one sees, hears, and intuits unfolding, evolving and emerging from within this sacred gift offered all, as one converges with this Great Mystery. Truly, the living Spirit of the Divine is within, for and moving through the all and the everything of creation, which includes myself.
The veil of seperation is nothing but an illusion, for those whom have walked through its parting and into the mystery being made known. It always was, is and ever shall be about being and living in the blessed beauty and goodness of relationship with… and it is this mystical spiritual reality… open to all, that Jeshau, taught and lived.
The mere fact that IT IS.
I prefer the African Theo-Philosophical understanding of identity: WE are, therefore I am.
CREATION is indeed Sacred and Beautiful, especially our beautiful and Sacred Mother Nature/Earth, all living beings, our unique eternal human Souls, and ALL our physical and non-physical Spiritual dimensions within our BELOVED co-CREATOR~SOURCE’s Living Evolving Diverse LOVING COSMIC ONENESS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
God, that is, Love, is in all creation and floods us with awe when we awaken to that truth.
“Panentheism” is a label or category that Enlightenment-era intellectuals created to try to pigeonhole and narrowly define (or constrict) the actual mystical experience and its teachings. Go back to the writings of the mystics and you see some of the nuances of immanence and transcendence, duality and non-duality, the loving intimacy within Creation/matter and the uncanny unlimitedness of God beyond all categories of thought.
See also “pantheism” and how it (usually) differs from “panentheism.” Eckhart was a panentheist. The “Logos” or “Word” of the Gospel of John was also panentheism.
Very helpful, Melinda. Yes, labels while they can be helpful in one person’s search for understanding can also be exclusive of others. And Worse, they can close us down to an ever evolving reality, religion, and divinity. YES< duality and nonduality is so helpful. Today, after having written my own search for a dancing reality in Evolutionary Dancer, http://www.carolkilby.com I am writing rituals to try and express and share this experience of the transcendent and immanent, One'ness and evolving. Again, Thanks, Melinda.