Mother Earth is Not My God

In the course of my research on Permaculture principles and living a more natural lifestyle I find a lot of attention is often given to “Mother Earth” (aka “Mother Nature” or “Gaia/Gaea”) all over the place…in magazines, books, videos, etc.

While I recognize the value of the land, and I can see how the land can be identified as our mother, I am not an advocate for Gaia worship, and I prefer not to call the earth or nature our mother because of where that leads people in their minds.

Mother Earth is Not My God

I believe in a Creator, who is identified in the Bible simply as “God”. I believe it is He who made the sky, land and seas, as well as the vegetation and various living creatures who fly in the face of the sky, who move upon the land and who swim within the seas. He is the Ultimate Giver of Life and the Progenitor of it all.

And this Giver of Life is also referred to in the Bible as the God of the Spirits of All Flesh.

The Ultimate Giver of Life Reigns Supreme

According to the Bible, this Creator formed man in His own image with the ability to reproduce after like kind, and I refer to this Creator as my Heavenly Father.

The Bible says:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7 KJV)

While this says He made man using the dust of the land, it also says that He is the Giver of Life. This is why it is He whom I ultimately serve and adore, not the land from which we initially came forth.

I appreciate the land, and I believe we need to work with the land and not against it…that we need to honor it: to learn from it and care for it as it cares for us.

And yes, we can esteem the land for what it is. But it is not my God.

We Serve the God of the Bible

I personally hold to the Ten Commandments and choose to serve the God of the Bible, who delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and declared to them that they are to have no other gods before Him.

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:1-3 KJV)

The Hebrew word translated here as “LORD” is Yehovah (or YHVH), and it means the Existing One. He is identified in the Bible as being the Maker of heaven and earth.

The Hebrew word translated as “God” is “elohiym” and essentially means mighty one. Given that He is the Maker of all, I consider Him to be the All-mighty One.

While there are other “mighty ones” in existence, I believe He is the One who brought me out of a figurative house of bondage. So, this is why I will not put any other gods in His face, so to speak.

The Maker Made Man to Be a Ruler in the Land

We are all part of a fascinating ecosystem, and man has been given dominion over the life in it.

The dominion comes from the Maker of that life, and in my view, He is my God.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28 KJV)

Verse 28 says that man is to “subdue” (H3533 “kabash”) the land. The Hebrew word “kabash” used there means “to subject, subdue, force, keep under, bring into bondage”.

And with that dominion, He gave us its fruit for our sustenance.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. (Genesis 1:29-30 KJV)

So, while the land is useful for nourishment in the produce that comes forth from it, man is made to subdue it.

Our Heavenly Father is our God

We here at WiggleCulture recognize how the land nurtures us and brings us good health and well-being, but ultimately the Source of all life comes from a Higher Power. And we understand that Higher Power to be the Existing One, whom we call Yahweh (or Yehovah [same as”YHVH”]).

He is the Most High God as far as we are concerned, and we are grateful for His blessings of fertility & dominion and gifts of provision and seek to share these blessings with our offspring and our fellow man.

Our aim is to please Him by ruling rightly in the land, by obeying His commandments and teaching others through our word and deed to do the same. And we believe our reward for doing so will be prosperity, peace, and long life.

Our Mother certainly has her place, but do you know your Father? Honor both your Father and Mother, so that your days may be long upon the land. And always remember who the Source of all life is. He is worthy to be praised!