“The Fullness of all the Earth is (G!D’s) Glory!” 

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” 

-Isaiah (Isaiah 6:3 and 55:12)

I’ve always thought that Earth Day should be called Humans Day, because it’s really not about saving the Earth. She’ll do fine without us. It’s about saving our place on the planet.

I’ve always been fond of these lines from Isaiah. The first is usually translated “the Earth is full of G!D’s glory!” but the Hebrew more literally says that the fullness of the Earth is G!D’s glory. That all of creation not only reveals, but is the fullness of the Divine.

The second line is one of many biblical lines that suggest that Creation praises the Divine, and that we are part and parcel of it all, part of the praising, part of the fullness, participants in the glory. If the landscape can sing and the foliage clap, why are we holding back?

What a difference if we saw the earth this way every day! That all of creation is alive, infused with Divine Presence, sacred throughout its entirety. Earth Day could be a celebration of all creation, a day of joy and wonder, and not one of extraction, fabrication, pollution, annihilation. What if it really is the Fullness of Creation itself that is the Glory of G!D?

What can you do to celebrate creation today?

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Isaiah (Hebrew: Yeshayahu, literally: “Yah is salvation”), was a prophet documented by the Biblical Book of Isaiah to have lived around the time of 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.