“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15).

Mother nature has a very deep connection with God and mankind. Usually, when people hear “mother nature,” their minds automatically shift to thinking of earthly plants and all the scenic sights. And while that isn’t wrong, it’s an incomplete perception of mother nature. God created man out of the substance of the earth, so we are a part of mother nature ourselves. Moreover, after God created the first man, he assigned him a job; he placed him in the paradise of the garden of Eden to serve as its caretaker.

This essentially proves that God created man to work for the fulfillment of his godly purpose. He could have just as easily given man a life of opulence and indulgence, yet that was not God’s design. This first man’s duty was fairly simple; to sustain the garden of Eden. He was given responsibility for the upkeep of the plants and trees there. This was before sin entered the picture, which also emphasizes that the purpose of working was built into us and is what God has intended for us.

Moreover, for God to assign man the first task in the service of the very earth he was crafted from, it just goes to show how important of a role nature plays in our very existence. We not only should work to preserve nature, but we should also worship it. There’s a reason why those nature-based retreats work. This is why people automatically feel better when they take a walk in a park or see a beautiful view of nature.

You must have experienced that feeling of light and weightless happiness that you just can’t explain. That, is your soul rejoicing in the reunion with nature; it’s the sheer joy of coming back home. We associate the feeling of comfort, safety, and ease with a place we call home, whether it is our actual home or the presence of something that reminds us of it.

Nature is our true, eternal home, and it is our actual mother. We were born of it, and whenever our life gets difficult, we find ourselves reaching out to it almost subconsciously.For example, when choosing a picnic spot, most of us focus on the natural aspect of the place we are planning to head to before anything else. That sense of seeking comfort and relaxation, that urge to be soothed, that is what makes us gravitate towards our true mother—mother nature. It is akin to how a child feels the need to reach out to their mother whenever they feel slighted and need to be comforted in some way. While this sense lessens as we grow, the need remains and comes to light in difficult times.

We should all, therefore, seek to strengthen this beautiful connection with mother nature, and in turn, she will heal you, soothe you, and make you grow closer to God.