Scripture & Creation

Matthew 2:11

And when they [the three Wise Men] were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold and frankincense and myrrh.

The Birth of Christ Into the World

When Christ was born into the world “to give light to them that sit in darkness” (Luke 1:79), the “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This act changed the world for now God, through his Son, lived fully within it. Therefore the world was not unclean or unholy, but sanctified by the incarnation of Christ.

Around this holy birth, shepherds “watched over their flocks by night.” All the kingdoms of creation attend this birth. The angels were there (Luke 2:910); several people were there; a variety of animals were present (Luke 2:8); and by implication we can assume where the animals were, there was vegetation and perhaps trees. Finally even the mineral kingdom would be represented there, through stones and gravel and soil.

After the birth of Jesus, the wise men arrive from the East. They represent, not only the height of human wisdom coming to worship him, but the different manifestations of life coming to worship the new born Lord. Early biblical exegesis associates meaning with each of the gifts of the Magi. The gold symbolizes the spirit, and so the pure spiritual side of life; the frankincense represents the psychic, or realm of the mind and the soul; the myrrh represents the body, and therefore the physical world. All the “kingdoms” of life are gathered together to acknowledge the Lord. This shows that all of creation is responding to the Incarnation. Nothing is ever the same again.
As Christ was born into the world, God becomes personally and tangibly manifest within creation. He is the Creator who is above it, but He is also the Redeemer who is within it. Because His physical presence has walked and talked within the world, because He has breathed its air and eaten its food, the creation acquires an indelible sacred character which forever affirms that it is worthy of all respect and care.

Because he is both above the world but also within it, His continuing nurturing presence also sustains the world and all of its life. For this reason everything which lives is subtly rooted in the life of the Lord.

The vision of creation as good which God affirmed at the beginning of the world now receives a further impulse of blessedness. This becomes the basis for the earth being renewed in His death and resurrection. The Incarnation also provides us a vision of holiness amidst the material world. Just as Jesus came into the world, so His presence through the Holy Spirit continues to give a sacred quality to the world.

For ecology, the Incarnation establishes the premise that the whole earth must be considered holy for Christ has been born into it. In fact, the reason for this birth is that “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). If God loves the world, then in our striving to imitate what is of God, should we not also love what He loves?

The birth of Christ ushers in a new era for earthly life. The early Church was so impressed with the depth of this sacred event that even our calendar begins with the year of our Lord’s birth.