The Womb of Our Mother (Earth)

From dust we have come and to dust we will go.

From the earth we have come and to the earth we will go.

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One ancient author tells a story of a god that breathed life into clay, forming that clay into the first human beings. All life was imagined by a god and then formed from the earth itself, born of the mother that gives birth to us all.

Other authors wrote other stories about how everything came into being. Tales of gods, giants, and cows are told to help make sense of the mystery of our beginning. An odd number of creation myths tell the story of how the earth is formed from the body of a slain god.

There are thousands of little differences between the various creation narratives, but what most of these myths share in common is that we, us humans, come from the earth. We are not born out of nothing, but rather we are born out of the womb of the earth, our mother.

Each of us shares the DNA of our mothers, as we literally shared bodies with her and made our homes in her womb. Many, but not all, of us carry fond feelings for our mothers, caring more deeply for them than most other people. I, for one, love my mother deeply and beyond whatever words I can conjure here.

In her body, I was formed.

In her arms, I was carried.

In her heart, I am loved.

My very body was her body. All that is ‘me’ was first her. I was created by her body, sustained by her body, and held by her body.

I owe my life to my mother, indebted to the gift of her body.

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All that I am, and all that I have, is of the earth. To be human is to be of the earth.

For time immemorial, humans operated in a symbiotic relationship with nature. It was not a war against or mastery over the earth and its gifts. Instead, we saw ourselves as a part of, not apart from, the earth. When the earth suffered, we instinctively understood that we suffered along with it. The earth, our mother, was cared for deeply.

In her body, we were formed.

In her arms, we were carried.

In her heart, we are loved.

Our very bodies were her body. We were created by her body, sustained by her body, and held by her body.

We owe our lives to the earth, indebted to the gift of her body.

But we have betrayed this trust. The earth is seen as something to conquer, to rape and pillage for our benefit. This is to our shame and to our detriment.

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We must change the way we relate to the earth, our mother.

Caring for the earth is core to how I see myself as a Christian. The creation story in the book of Genesis, whether it is factual or not, speaks to the reality of that we were formed by a loving and benevolent God out of the earth. We were not formed ex nihilo, or ‘out of nothing’. Our bones, hair, muscles, organs, and whatever else makes up our bodies is of the earth. She is our mother who gave us everything that is us.

This is not a uniquely Christian idea. Not even close.

This is a human idea and perhaps even a Divine one.

If we do not change, I fear that our mother will suffer such a grievous wound that she will not be able to recover. She is not ours to plunder, to use, or to abuse. Her gifts are freely given, but our greed has robbed her ability to continue to care for us as she once did. We have taken her for granted, and we have taken too much. Our relationship with the earth is broken.

But I believe all broken things can be made new.

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To be Christian is to take part in the process of liberation and redemption of the entire created order. When the relationship between us and the earth, or with each other, is broken, it becomes our sacred duty to restore the relationship, to mend and heal all wounds and rifts.

To be human is to take part in this process as well. We are all responsible for healing a broken world, regardless of your faith tradition or preferred political party. We must work towards a future that is better than our past, and we must do this with and for each other. Selfish ambition and vain conceit have contributed to the destruction of the earth, so it will take selfless action and a humble preference to restore what is now broken into working order.

This will certainly mean that we will lose something in the process, but we will gain far more. We will lose power, privilege, and a way of life that we have been accustomed to. We will also lose greed, competition, and the pillaging of the earth.

But we will gain freedom, healing, and a future for this earth and fellow humans. We will gain this world and perhaps more.

This will take all of us, the children of earth, to become who we have always been: human. To be human is to be of the earth. It is our sacred identity to be human, just as it is our human identity to be sacred.

We were born in the womb of our mother, the earth. Let us care for her as we learn to also care for each other.