There is a river that brings joy to the city of God,
to the sacred house of the Most High.
God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed;
at early dawn he will come to its aid. – Psalm 46:4-5 (GNT)
A study was released this week indicating that since 2000 butterfly populations in the U.S. have dropped by over 22%. For our area that means that out of the roughly 140 species of butterfly we have, over 90 are significantly dwindling in numbers nationally. Pollinators like butterflies are essential to so much of the flow of life around us, and so this loss can have cascading effects. This certainly highlights the need for things like the pollinator garden we have at St. Matthew. What is striking me more today, though, is how distant we can feel from things like the decline in butterflies. How readily do we actually notice such a drastic change? Were you aware that our area has 140 species of butterfly?
Key to noticing the details of life in a particular place – not just human life but life in its fullness around us – is to love something about that place. Some places it is easy to name something about it to love. Among places I have lived, I think of the scale of the landscape in West Texas that makes clear how small our human settlements really are; the continual presence and movement of water through the Borneo rainforests; the shale that crumbles under your feet in the Western Maryland hills; the scattered boulders of the part of Georgia I lived in. More suburban areas can be harder to identify what particular thing about that place grasps you. That isn’t to say that there aren’t places in an area that are incredible. Rather, it is that those places can seem isolated when so much of the area is a similar mix of housing and shopping and offices. Yet finding that feature of an area that you love about it is key to loving that area, and when you love an area you begin to notice the smaller nuances of it. You begin to notice the types of butterflies that live there. You notice when those butterflies are not around as much. What is it that you love about this area of New Jersey? What features of the land grasp you and make you pay attention?
As we continue in Lent, let us continue to remember that the simplicity and acts of repentance and service that characterize it are not really about negation. Lent is about loving something. It is about remembering that all we need is God, and if we put our whole heart towards God we will find all that we need. This is not being against other things, but rather opening ourselves to a deep love for God. When we love God deeply, we will then begin to notice the nuances and wonders that accompany the places where God dwells – and God’s dwelling is all around us! To love God is to then re-learn to love the shale and boulders, which in turn moves us to pay attention to and love the flowers and butterflies, which in turn moves us to work to sustain those butterflies rather than forget about them as they slip away. To cut away the things that distract us from God is to be reminded of God’s love for us and our love for God, which overflows into loving the place we are in.