“[Rather than fossil fuels and coal], I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!…” Thomas Edison
What if the sun is God’s gift to us – not just in terms of warmth, sunlight and the means for plants to engage in photosynthesis – but as renewable, abundant, clean energy?
When growing up in Southern California, I would walk for hours – away from replicated housing developments, carefully manicured lawns and acres of blacktopped parking – to find an “undeveloped” parcel of land. Even if the plot of rocky soil was populated by scrub brush and tumbleweeds, I would find myself breathing a sigh of relief and then, unceremoniously, plopping myself in the middle of it all. OK, it must have been perplexing for passing motorists to find a teenager sitting right in the middle of a scourged piece of undeveloped real-estate, but to me, I had finally arrived.
It wasn’t until much later that I discovered that God is in Richard Rohr’s words, in every single thing, meaning all of creation. Unlike pantheism, where God is identical with the cosmos, early church mothers and fathers perceived that God was revealed in and through creation, as biblically attested in the opening verses of Genesis. States Rohr, “Creation was the First Bible and it existed some 13.7 billion years before the Second Bible was written.”
Concerning solar energy, there is a quote attributed to one of the world’s most prolific inventors, Thomas Edison. Ninety years ago, and speaking to industrialized nations’ reliance on oil and coal, Edison said, “We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy – sun, wind, and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!”
What if the sun is God’s gift to us – not just in terms of warmth, sunlight and the means for plants to engage in photosynthesis – but as a source of renewable, abundant, clean energy? Seen from a prophetic perspective, what if taking Edison’s words about harnessing this inexhaustible resource spares us from undermining what preserves and protects us? Particularly now, as we reckon with the challenge of global warming.
An early mentor of mine used to say that “God is always the bearer of Good News – which does not deny but empowers us in the face of grave challenges.” As we grapple with the need to reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere, could the Good News mean being able to harness the sun’s renewable power, God’s gift to us?
He has already given us all we need! It is our job to steward it properly. I don’t think destroying the planet was what God had in mind when he gave man dominion over it. As you say, he had already given us the most powerful source of energy we could ever need. Beautiful piece!
Yes! We do have all that we need, particularly in the way of energy from the sun. Thank you, Debra.
I agree wholeheartedly and am excited to know about Edison’s words which I had never heard.
Thank you, Maren. I was impressed when I came across Edison’s words too. Visionary!