God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed–the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.
Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. (Gn 1:31-2:1-4a)
When Camp Lawrence was begun in our diocese, Bishop Grutka had a say in the chosing of the camp motto: Close to nature, close to God. It was his hope that all who came to camp would be able to find God in the peaceful beauty of the property.
I had a friend, who has been deceased for many years now, who used to brag about going to his idea of a cathedral: a pristine lake in northern Wisconsin. It was there, he claimed, that he would commune with God. He took me there once and, I have to admit, my breath was taken away when we pulled out of the woods into the clearing of the lake. I have never seen such beauty in nature before.
The past two days, the Church has given us the creation story to hear proclaimed in the first reading. Each day, God created pieces of His creation. Each day, He found it to be very good.
God created everything out of nothing. He found it to be incredibly beautiful and good. What, then, happened to it? The short answer, of course, would be sin. The sad reality is that all of God’s created beauty — including our very selves — can be marred and made ugly by sin.
God does not desire that for us. He desires us to see His beauty and His glory. Let us take a good look at all that God has made and rejoice in His creation all around us.
FAITH ACTION: Look for the good in all the experiences and people that you encounter today. It is there. Sometimes we just need to look deeper to find it.