The Wonders of Creation by Kristen Page;

Author:Kristen Page;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: c. s. lewis;c.s. lewis;cs lewis;Narnia;j. r. r. Tolkien;j.r.r. Tolkien;jrr Tolkien;middle earth;lord of the rings;lotr;the hobbit;the chronicles of Narnia;creation care;environmentalism;biology;literature;fantasy;literary analysis;literary criticism
Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
Published: 2022-08-19T08:40:59+00:00

God spoke: “Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life!

Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!”

God created the huge whales,

all the swarm of life in the waters,

And every kind and species of flying birds.

God saw that it was good . . .

God spoke: “Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind:

cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds.”

And there it was:

wild animals of every kind,

Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug.

God saw that it was good. (Gen 1:20-25)

Reading the biblical story of God’s creative and imaginative design for the diversity of the animal kingdom, how can we not mourn the loss of all that he so intentionally created? Each time a species is lost, we lose an aspect of the Creator’s intentional design, a gift that he has given us for a specific purpose. We should never forget the divine declaration made by the Creator as he observed the myriad animals he had just created: “And God saw that it was good.”

I have always been captivated by animals. As a young child, I spent hours playing with my collection of plastic animals, creating and enacting stories that must have been something similar to how I now envision the reconciled earth: lions, lambs, zebras, bears, eagles, and giraffes all playing together joyfully in the imagined landscapes of my bedroom. I also spent hours playing outside, whether catching crayfish and tadpoles in the creek or walking through the woods behind our house. I can remember sitting under the large branches of an old magnolia. This felt like my own world, a place that fostered my curiosity and creativity. My curious nature was fostered by my family—especially my grandmother, Nanny, who spent time with me in her garden teaching me about the plants and the birds visiting her feeder. My mother also taught me to pay attention to the beautiful details around me, especially while watching birds or taking long walks at the beach, where we picked up beautiful shells and amazing fossils that sparked my imagination about creatures of the past.

When I began my undergraduate studies in biology, my very first course was zoology with a professor who would become one of my most important mentors, Dr. Bill Teska. I loved this course. I loved Dr. Teska’s excitement when he showed us something amazing about animals, and I loved the delight he took in our learning. I took every course I could with this passionately curious man! The summer after my freshman year, I spent a month traveling in a van with Dr. Teska and twelve other students, camping our way across the United States. We hiked the Grand Canyon from rim to rim, and we used black light to catch scorpions and spotlights to catch kangaroo rats. We birded from Zion to the Olympic Peninsula and then saw our first bears in Glacier National Park. We set small mammal traps every night so that we could see the diversity of rodents and insectivores across North America. We always released everything

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