Changing Dry Land into Springs - August 15
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); PM Psalm 33; Judges 16:1-14; Acts 7:30-43; John 5:1-18
Today’s Reflection
The Earth is in constant flux. Environmental conditions, climate changes, and human use of the land, can change a place that once was lush pastures into a desert or what was once a verdant forest into a treeless wasteland.
But the reverse is also possible. Lands that have been over farmed can be brought back into fruitfulness when the people who live there begin to interact with the environment differently. As we read in Psalm 107: 33-38, “He changed deserts into pools of water and dry land into water-springs. He settled the hungry there, and they founded a city to dwell in. They sowed fields, and planted vineyards, and brought in a fruitful harvest. He blessed them, so that they increased greatly; he did not let their herds decrease.”
These verses from Psalm 107 remind me of a very short (10-minute) film I watched earlier this year, The Church Forests of Ethiopia: A Mystical Geography. Vast swaths of Ethiopia that once were forested are now dry, dusty wastelands that sound much like “the fruitful land that became salt flats.” But what one discovers by looking down on the terrain from above are islands of forest scattered amidst the wasteland.
Why are there trees growing in these circular pockets? Because these are where the Ethiopian Orthodox churches are found. Around each church, the neighboring farms did not encroach onto the church’s land because a wall is built around each church to demarcate its sacred land. This observation caused forest ecologists Alemayehu Wassie and Meg Lowman to propose a partnership with these churches. They have worked together to ask the clergy and people of each church community to consider moving their church walls further outward, extending the protective, sacred space around each church outward—allowing the existing trees to flourish and new growth to emerge on the margins of each island of trees.
Psalm 107 also reminds me of a non-profit, founded by a former colleague of mine, which seeks to spark both environmental and economic renewal. The Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR) was founded by Anne Hallum, a political science professor emerita, bringing together her Christian ethics (she was an elder in the Presbyterian church across from campus) with her concerns for improving the health of the earth and the well-being of its people.
Focusing their efforts in Guatemala, AIR’s work includes teaching regenerative farming, planting trees that fertilize the soil and help prevent mudslides, helping people start new tree nurseries that positively impact the local economy, and building more efficient brick stoves that both improve air quality and decrease the trees being cut down for fuel. Over the almost 30 years since AIR’s founding, 5,000 rural families have been trained in their own communities, 5.5 million trees have been planted, and 875 stoves have been constructed. But the Guatemalan communities are not the only ones who are changed. Hallum describes the story of how she volunteered to lead a student trip to Guatemala on whim, then returned with the inspiration to found AIR: “God rescued me in Guatemala, and I found his purpose for my life.”
As Robert Alter, a scholar of the Hebrew scriptures, observes, “God’s awesome powers of transformation work in both directions: He can turn desolation into lush fecundity… and he can also turn fruitful places into desert.” As we ponder how we are called to care for creation in our own context, consider how resurrection is revealed in these stories of repairing and renewing creation.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Is there an area of your life that was once verdant and fruitful that now feels more like a wasteland? What is one thing could you possibly change that would breathe life and health back into this part of your life?
Daily Challenge
If you’re interested in learning more of the Church Forests of Ethiopia, or watching the short film, you can do so here: https://emergencemagazine.org/story/the-church-forests-of-ethiopia/
If you want to read more of AIR’s continuing work, you can find out more here: https://www.airguatemala.org/about.php.