a gloss on the Creation story that radically alters the way Christiansrnview Nature. The God Who created the world and everythingrnin it has become a part of Creation; indeed, He has becomernthe centerpiece of Creation, the Savior of mankind, hirntaking on our nature. He has not only redeemed us but drawnrnus closer to Him. As C.S. Lewis explained in his reflection onrnChristinas in The Business of Heaven,rnhi creahon Cod makes—invents—a person and “utters”rn—injects—him into the realm of Nature, hi the hicaniation.rnCod the Son takes the body and human soulrnof Jesus, and, through that, the whole environment of Nature,rnall the creaturely predicament, into His own being.rnSo that “He came down from Heaven” can almost berntransposed into “Heaven drew earth up into it,” and locality,rnlimitahon, sleep, sweat, footsore weariness, fnistration,rnpain, doubt, and death, are, from before all worlds,rnknown by God from within.rnCod’s drawing of all nature into Him, becoming “all in all,”rnas Lewis puts it, is something far different from the pantheist visionrnin which Cod is simply all. “[W]hat is everywhere and always,rnimageless and ineffable, only to be glimpsed in dream andrnsymbol and the acted poetry of ritual becomes small, solid—nornbigger than a man who can lie asleep in a rowing boat on thernLake of Galilee.” Conversely, that Man is “everywhere and always,rnimageless and ineffable,” and by taking up His Cross andrnfollowing Him, we too can share —more remotely, but sharernnonetheless—in the inner life of God.rnT “•he Incarnation makes it clearrnthat the Creation story ofrnGenesis does not end when Godrnrests on the seventh day.rnThe hicamation thus confirms man’s role as co-creator withrnGod, as Saint Augushnc argued in De Musica. “Let us makernman to our image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26) takes on a fullerrnmeaning when Christ, in turn, assumes man’s image and likeness.rnWhile some conservative Christians tend to stress man’srn”dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air,rnand the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creaturernthat moveth upon the earth” whenever they wish to jushfyrnthe clearcutting of a forest or the building of a 40-acre Wal-Martrnon fertile soil, the recognition that man’s dominion must be exercisedrnwithin the context of his participation in Christ’s crcahvernachvity places limits on what man is allowed to do to Nature.rnAs co-creators with Christ (within our limited humanrnsphere), can we jushfy laying waste to that which Christ has created?rnWhy would we want to?rnChristianity is not an ideology, and, therefore, it does not offerrnan abstract blueprint for the moral life. Rather, the hicarnahonrnconfirms the essenhal historicity of man, which means thatrnthe morality of any particular act is inseparable from the circumstancesrnin which it occurs. Man comes to know riglit andrnwrong not through mere reasoning, but through concrete parhcipationrnin the life of Christ. Wliile it is wrong to view Christrnas simply an extraordinarily moral figure whose actions wernshould mimic, we can learn from His life on Earth, and wernshould never dismiss any detail of that life as insignificant.rnFrom His training as a caqjcnter at the side of Saint Joseph, tornHis first miracle at the wedding at Cana, to His raising ofrnLazarus from the dead, Christ’s human life is one of creationrnand renewal, affirming the goodness of nature and of man’s parhcipationrntherein. As Creek Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Warernwrites in The Orthodox Way, Christians arc the true materialists,rnbecause Christ Himself has shown us the incalculable value ofrnthe material world. We know that the Lord rejoices in Hisrnworks (Psalm 103); we should do the same. Even in desolation,rnwe realize that this vale of tears will one day be renewed and glorified,rnas will our material bodies. Our duty is to begin that renewalrnhere and now, in our own limited way. hi the resurrection,rnthe fullness of Lewis’s statement that “Heaven drew earthrnup into it” at the hicamation will be revealed.rnKeeping this in mind, how should we live our lives today, inrnhistory, before the resurrection? What is the proper Christianrnattitude toward Nature? The Incarnation makes it clearrnthat the Creation story of Genesis does not end when Cod restsrnon the seventh day. Creation is an ongoing process, and man,rnas Saint Augustine argues, plays the central role in bringing thernlower spheres of Creation into harmony with the upper. AsrnChrist explained in the parable of the talents, it is not enoughrnfor us simply to preserve that which we have been given. Ourrnactions should increase the beauty of the world, so that we mayrnjoin Nature in proclaiming the Lord’s praise:rnPraise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all yerndeeps:rnFire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, which fiilfil his word:rnMountains and all hills, fruitfiil trees and all cedars:rnBeasts and all cattle: serpents and feathered fowls:rnKings of the earth and all people: princes and all judgesrnof the earth;rnYoung men and maidens: let the old with the younger,rnpraise the name of tlie 1 ,ord:rnFor his name alone is exalted [Psalm 148: 7-13].rnThe Incarnation also teaches us that our actions should not bernabstract: Christ performed the greatest “global” feat in history—rnthe salvation of all mankind—by “acting locally.” Because wernare bound by time and space, our moral sphere is limited; by focusingrnour efforts on “the preservation of the environment,” wernrisk the destruction of our very backyard. If we flatter ourselvesrnby believing that our Sally Strutlier,s-like concern about globalrnwarming and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest will helprnkeep “Earth in the balance,” then we, like Al Gore, are likely tornsee little wrong with dumping tires and other waste in the littiernplot of land that Cod has aehially entrusted to us.rnWlicn Cod created man. He placed him in a garden; butrnwhen Adam’s sin resulted in our expulsion from Eden, our toilrnin the earth had just begun. As Wes Jackson writes in BecomingrnNative to This Place, “creating the world is involved in our everyrnact. It is impossible for us to operate in our daily lives and notrncreate the world that everyone must live in.” The question canrnnever be whether we will create, but whether we will create inrnHis image, or in ours.rn22/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn