Creation Care: Experience Creation in a New Way

For most of my childhood and young adulthood, I remained oblivious to creation. Taking for granted the beauty and wonder all around me, I hurried through school and began working towards my career goals. Of course, I knew the big challenges facing the natural world. News about climate change and a giant plastic garbage patch in the Pacific did not escape my notice. Yet, the crises facing our earth always felt a bit distant from my day-to-day life. I knew that Christians were called to care for the earth—I’d read Genesis chapters one and two enough times to know that God created the earth, and it was good. I knew that God loved creation and that we, the ones bearing God’s image, were called to care for and steward the created world. But the problems with our world seemed overwhelming, and I didn’t know how I could make a difference.

Then, I discovered gardening. 

For me, caring for creation starts with plants and gardening—not because plants and gardening are necessarily the most important element of creation (though they are pretty great), but because gardening connects me to God’s beautiful creation, the earth.  My work with plants in the garden has shown me anew the truly wondrous nature of the world around us, and it has given me a passion to do what I can to care for God’s creation.

I came to gardening, like many, during the Covid pandemic. Our church preschool director was looking for someone to help start a gardening program for the school, and I volunteered. I jumped in head first, taking a horticultural class at my local community college and building four different raised beds–one for each classroom. I learned so much that first year. I learned about flowers and pollination, pistils and stamen, rhizomes, and tubers. I even learned the difference between a monecious and a dioecious plant (look it up). However, the most important thing I gained from gardening was a renewed wonder for God’s created world and the hope that I could make a difference for the environment.

Being outside with birds and insects awakened me to the complexity and beauty of our natural world. Learning about the miracle of photosynthesis stopped me in my tracks. Through the process of photosynthesis, plants take energy from sunlight, add carbon dioxide and water, and turn it into a simple sugar. They basically convert sunlight into sugar! Without plants, we would have no food because almost everything humans eat comes from a plant or an animal that eats plants. Learning about this mind-blowing miracle of creation left me in awe of our wonderful creator, God.

Gardening has also inspired me to make a difference in the environment. I learned I could improve our world by planting and caring for native plants, which are crucial to the health of our insect and bird populations. Since 1970, the adult bird population in North America has decreased by about 2.9 billion, which is more than a quarter of the total population. Why are birds disappearing? Many point to pesticide use and the loss of habitat. But in fact, it comes down to bugs. While adult birds eat a diverse diet of seeds, fruit, and insects, baby birds need a special diet of insects, primarily caterpillars. For example, 5,000 caterpillars are needed to raise a nest of 5 baby chickadees. Unfortunately, in what some scientists have called the “insect apocalypse,” the total number of insects in our world has declined by 45 percent in the last forty years. Without insects, we would not have food for birds. Nor do we have pollinators for our crops and wild plants, which means less habitat for insects and birds and the eventual collapse of entire ecosystems.

The good news is we can do something about it. We can help restore bug and bird habitats by planting native plants in our yards. Many insects need the native host plants that they co-evolved with in order to survive because their young only eat a specific host plant. A well-known example of this is monarch butterflies and milkweed. Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed. As milkweed disappears, so do the monarchs. (Some estimate that western monarchs have declined by 90% in the last two decades). As native plants disappear, so do the insects that require those plants to reproduce, which causes the decline of birds that need insects to reproduce. 

Scientist Doug Tallamy, in his book Bringing Nature Home, argues that the suburban spaces in our yards, parks, schools, and churches, if planted with native plants, would provide the habitat necessary to save our insects and birds.  Contrary to common perception, planting California natives instead of the introduced species that fill our big box stores would not cause us to sacrifice beauty in our yards nor leave us with only succulents or desert plants. There are over 1500 native species in San Diego alone, including everything from the majestic coast live oak to the beautiful California poppy.  Sages, Buckwheats, Manzanitas, California Lilacs, Toyon, and Coffeeberry once covered the hillsides of San Diego. Unlike the lawns and alien shrubs we use in our landscaping, these beautiful native plants are perfectly adapted to our climate and soils, requiring very little extra water or care.   

Gardening and learning about plants have shown me that we can make a difference for the good of the earth. When we plant native plants, we care for the earth by providing crucial habitat for the insects upon whom our birds and food web depend, fulfilling our role as stewards of God’s wondrous creation.  

This Fall, make an effort to experience creation in a new way. Take a hike. Plant a native species. Stop and smell the flowers. And consider what you can do to better steward this beautiful, intertwined creation.