Mother Nature
“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them all according to each one’s need.”
The above is a not a description of a Venezuela’s socialist community or of the dream of some utopian society, but is the description of how the early followers of the Way of Jesus lived after Jesus lived, died and resurrected. This is just a quote from the Bible of how they lived and why this early community was so appealing.
This style of communal living and sharing has been lost, especially here in the USA where individualism reigns. However, Mother Nature keeps this spirit of living for the common good alive. It can be seen in working with the earth and in women.
Today in our Faith In Recovery, mental health ministry, support group, one of the women, herself with a major mental illness, pointed out how in general women were more concerned about the common good than were men. One of the men asked out loud if we men in the group should be offended. I said no. Later in the day her observation was borne out in a TV news report about the economic depression. The report said how Iceland was one of the first countries in the world to feel the weight of the depression on the economy. All the banks failed except one, which was run by women. Following up why this was, the story explored that mostly male financial world. Men tended to be more individualistic than communal-minded like women. In fact in a testosterone test of men on Wall Street, it was found that the higher the testosterone level was of men on the trade floor the more risk they would take; they might make more money, but the downside, as we now are experiencing, was also greater.
Mother Nature as we experience in the garden also puts the common good over the individual. Nature always strives to be there for all creatures, and after natural disasters always restores itself. Only man (individuals) makes unnatural disasters like the wasted use of the environment causing devastating effects like global warming.
In my garden if I till the soil, plant the seed, maximize the organic growing power of the earth, the garden thrives. The introduction of chemicals, insecticides, although offering promises of more, just interferes with the natural elements of growth.
Perhaps the Way of the early followers of Jesus is out of reach, but we can still strive to share and to make the good of all a priority in our society, just like Mother Nature, Sophia, Wisdom, or Jesus.
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