For many years it was the privilege of the present writer, almost every week, to write reflections in this column having something to do with the first article of our Christian faith, our belief in creation. Then, after retirement from the editorship of this magazine, it seemed time to take a break, to go back to school, and to bring my knowledge of natural science a little more up to date. So I completed a graduate program in the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. As a student, I had to write many a challenging paper on a variety of topics relating to the world around us. It now seems time, however, to return to my friends, the readers of this magazine, and to resume the First Article occasionally.

Have I learned worthwhile things in the past half dozen years? I hope so. We know very well that human beings are dependent on other forms of life on this planet for the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, and all beverages besides water. Our earthly existence is part of a vast and unbelievably complex web of plant and animal life. My period of study has made me even more aware of this. Research in various fields by scholars and scientists has now taken this a step further. We are not only part of a so-called natural world, but we need consciously to know it and feel it. The working of our mind and heart presupposes that we are part of a big landscape, and that our happiness and well-being depend in part on an awareness that there are other forms of life around us.

The crowds who go to zoos and circuses, the children who cluster around a policeman's horse, the old folk who feed pigeons in the park, and all who love a dog or a cat, all feel some link with creatures which are very similar and very different from ourselves. The well-nigh universal desire to have grass rather than concrete beneath our feet, to be surrounded by trees and bushes rather than by walls, and if possible to have water in sight somewhere, all this suggests the kind of landscape which was the Eden of our remote forebears, and which we long to have at least glimpses of in this world around us, and to have it reflected in the fine arts.

In short, the natural world has value. It is not simply mechanical or physical or financial usefulness, but rather value in the sense of something beyond and more than the material, something that exceeds and enhances our merely mechanical needs. Here we approach the Christian concept of creation. Stuff does not merely exist out there, but rather the things which exist have something over and above mere existence. Taken together, the things we perceive have order, harmony and beauty. They communicate to our minds a message.

What is this message? For Christians, as for Muslims and Jews, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). To see this evidence of the love, wisdom and power of our Creator is one of the great privileges of a human life.

(The Rev. Canon) H. Boone Porter, senior editor