Katie Kreisheimer - Making Nature Sacred

Making Nature Sacred “Simple tasks as religious acts” pg. 107

“Thaxter approaches even the simple task of planting seeds as a religious act:
I always do it with a joy that is largely mixed with awe. I watch my garden beans after they are sown, and think how one of God’s exquisite miracles is going on beneath the dark earth out of sight… Yes, the sowing of a seed seems a very simple matter but I always feel as if it were a sacred thing among the mysteries of God.”
I found myself comparing this section of Making Nature Sacred to what we have discussed in class about masking the Holy. The simple act of planting a seed into the ground and having some type of living plant grow up from beneath the ground may seem common to most people. However, when you think about it on a deeper level, it really makes you wonder how that happens, especially without sunlight. Thaxter finds the sprouting of seeds to have been one of the many workings of God’s mysteries, and for something like a beautiful flower, or some type of vegetation, maybe even one we as use to survive, to sprout up is a sacred experience. A simple seed is giving life to something that is going to be beneficial to something or someone on earth. There are millions of plants and vegetation that are all over the earth, so one may not seem more special than another. It’s the hidden workings of God that really make each particular plant special, though. The holy is masked in each seed and behind each plant’s beauty. It may not be evident to others, but it is just one of the many ways that God hides his miracles on earth. No two plants are alike, and no seed can grow into something beautiful until God releases himself somehow or another in each occurrence. The Holy is masked everywhere.