Thursday, August 27, 2020

The Earthworm and Hurricane Laura


I had a large plastic barrel in the backyard, where the bushes held it captive for at least a year. It could be useful somewhere else, so I pulled it into the sunlight, bagged the paper trash, and looked inside. The remains of some gardening work was at the bottom. The sun was overhead, so I saw large earthworm moving and glistening in the sunlight, as if it had the most peaceful place on the planet to rest and grow.

I set him free by turning the barrel upside-down. An earthworm in sunlight will burrow down at once, using its bristles like tank treads and opening a path through the soil with its mouth.



Hurricane Laura will pass through Arkansas soon, taking an eastward turn at some point. The edge on radar is at Ft. Smith, 100 miles south of us. Big storms leave the NW corner of Arkansas alone or offer up only a tiny sample of the damage caused. How else would you get your Tyson chickens and EDLP (every day low prices)?

Hurricanes always cause fear, evacuations, and months of repair afterwards. Earthworms do not, but they bury civilization by building up soil relentlessly. They can even change a forest. If earthworms enter an evergreen forest via the boots of fishermen and hunters, the steady calcifying work and their reproduction will change the soil and make it less acid, less pine-friendly.

Christians are the earthworms, literally called New Creations from the Gospel Word converting them to believers in Christ. God does this work through the powerful Word of preaching and the Sacraments - the visible Word.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [ktisis - creation] : old things [archaic things] are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

17 ωστε ει τις εν χριστω καινη κτισις: τα αρχαια παρηλθεν ιδου γεγονεν καινα τα παντα


The thieves and liars from Fuller Seminary promise multitudes of Happy Campers if their products are bought and used. They are more like hurricanes for a few days, noisy and destructive, with repairs necessary for a long time afterwards.

 This all works together by design, in spite of our mistakes, but this web is even more productive by understanding Creation.