Vancouver Island Forrester Cares for Creation

Harold Macy is a forester who lives and works on Vancouver Island. He writes:

For me, caring for creation is responding to the prompting of the irrepressible Spirit of God extant in all things living and non-living on this earth.   This motivation becomes all- consuming at certain seasons, at unexpected moments of grace. The first task, however, is to quietly wait in expectation and anticipation of that small still inner Voice.

I have the privilege to make my living as a forester. I did not go into forestry for any specific theological reason. I was raised in a Christian home on the prairies where thrift, frugality and prudence were bywords. As farmers, this also translated into an ethic of conservation and preservation of the natural wealth of the land. There was not an overt spiritual incentive for this, but more a sense of “Take care of the land, and it will take care of us”.   We apply this daily to our thousand acre family-operated sustainable forest. Each year we harvest about sixty logging truck loads of wood through a series of small patch cuts and single tree selection. We plant thousands of seedlings, prune and thin juvenile stands and take long walks with the dog. Two of our four sons' have become foresters, too.

Being in forestry and working with plants that can take centuries to serve all the functions in His great design has made me cognizant of how fleeting and short my life is on earth, and concurrently how my actions here and now can affect the development of the forest long after I am gone and forgotten. Being a Christian has also made me aware of how insignificant I am in the grand scheme of Creation, even with chainsaw in hand, felling trees much older than me.

During the past two winters, I have been working on a book concerning “spiritual forestry”, for lack of a better term. The thesis is “…as grows the forest, so too the heart…” As we treat that of creation which surrounds us, be it field, forest or farm, we also do unto ourselves.  

  My other “creation-care” activity is horticulture. We have a greenhouse, orchard, berry patch and vegetable garden. This time of year, the sun is slowly heating up the land and the pulse of creation quickens in response. There is an unavoidable urgency to make soil mixes, plant seeds, peek encouragingly into trays of emerging seeds. I feel truly blessed to live in such a verdant area, where water and soil are abundant. I feel fortunate to have a wife as crazed about growing as I am.

Every year we fill the greenhouse with hanging baskets, rooted cuttings, divided perennials, and other bits of green for the MCC World Relief Fair—the Plant Sale which I am responsible for. As I work in the warm moist atmosphere, I pray for the people in Sudan, in Bangladesh, in Kenya—all places where we have translated geraniums and other plants into water wells, health clinics, and this year—new homes for shattered lives.

 

God bless,

Harold Macy

Courntey, BC