Dear Readers,

Verdant summer is upon us in the northern hemisphere. Birdsong erupts from the trees in my backyard every morning: sparrows, starlings, waxwings, and wrens all join together, seemingly rejoicing over the fact that they and the world around them exist. As I sit on my back porch to listen to these avian symphonies, I can see cherry trees swaying in the wind and a small vegetable garden swelling as the days lengthen and warm. This month in Fare Forward we turned to this world all around us—its care and keeping as well as its glory.

Throughout his writings, John Calvin repeatedly refers to the earth as a “mirror” through which we are meant to contemplate God’s glory, wisdom, and power. He writes in his Institutes that God “daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe,” that “humans cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see him.”

In this issue, we hope to inspire that same admiration and reverence for creation. This is paramount even and especially as we watch wildfires and other natural disasters ravage our planet. In an interview with Betsy Painter, who recently released a book on Christian environmentalism, T. Wyatt Reynolds explores what a Christian response to environmental destruction and disaster might look like. Painter ultimately points us toward an activism that is neither despairing nor alarmist.

Such small but faithful actions might look something like Matt Miller’s practices as a backyard gardener, which he details for us in “Suppose Him to Be the Gardener,” along the way offering an interpretation of St. John’s account of the resurrection. In another essay, Elise Tegegne considers new research that indicates consciousness in nature and how we should heed these findings as nature’s keepers. Collin Slowey contemplates his childhood fascination with dinosaurs and inquires what it is that makes the world of prehistory so captivating to us—child and adult alike. Finally, we’re pleased to include a poem by Michael Stalcup.

I hope these offerings will incline you toward love, fascination, cultivation, and care of the natural world around you, and that you too will see God’s glory reflected in the mirror that surrounds us.

Fare forward,

Moriah Hawkins

Managing Editor