We’ve been charged with subduing and cultivating the earth and all God has given us. And perhaps this comes with some degree of taming. But wisdom reminds us also to respect the wildness of nature, and certainly of God himself. This wildness is good and not something to try to control.
On the one hand, it’s our job to bring order into chaos. We build homes and communities, hunt and gather food, and strive to understand and gain knowledge about the world around us. And we do all of this to establish some sense of safety and security in life – allowing us to flourish. It’s hard to thrive when our basic needs are not being met, or when we simply cannot make heads or tails of any aspect of life. Love brings order and light into the realm of our influence.
At the same time, God created some animals that could be readily tamed and others that could not. Likewise, while we might be able to reasonably predict weather patterns, this is not something we can control. In short, there are many aspects of life that remain wild. And there’s profound beauty here. To be sure, the glory of a lion is best seen when he’s wild and free on the savannah, not in the cage at the local zoo.
And we miss the goodness and glory of God when we try to put him in such a box. While he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, he remains unpredictable and wild, forever faithful and yet untamable. And this wildness is for our good as it frees us from our illusions of control and reminds us that this is ultimately his story and not ours.
In the end, however disruptive, there’s a beauty and goodness to the wildness of creation that reflects God’s own. And a healthy fear and respect is the appropriate response on both accounts.
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