Leaves, Rain Drops, Tears

Leaves, Rain Drops, Tears

It’s a leaf, green and fed by the sun.  The symbol for the UN Climate Change meeting this month in Paris.

If it were blue, it would look like a drop of water.

White or clear, a tear drop.

If it were red, doctors would recognize the “tear shaped” red blood cell.  That would be bad - it’s a sign of blood disease.

Come to think of it, that bright sun in the upper left might be intended to suggest disease for the leaf also.  It’s too darn hot.  Rising temperatures are also a disease symptom, the disease known as climate change, killing our earth.

Might the artist have intentionally chosen a leaf shaped like a tear (there are other leaf shapes,) to suggest human tears, of sorrow or anger, as world leaders meet to try to halt what the Pope called “the limits of suicide?”

Did the UN know that their historic two-week conference would take place in the first two weeks of the Christian season of Advent?  (I doubt it, just noticing….)  A time of expectation and waiting.

Traditionally Advent’s first Sunday is “Hope,” the second “Peace.” We might find a little Hope if the leaders act. We might see some Peace if farms and cities can be sustainable.  (Syria’s torment began when years of drought forced most farmers to move to the already challenged cities.  Climate change breeds war and poverty and injustice.)

I call these weekly writings about ocean spirituality and stewardship my Blue Theology “Tide-ings” and I try to make them “glad tidings.”  Of great Joy.  (Joy is another week in Advent.)  Sometimes it is hard to find Joy, and Peace, and Hope, and Love, in our suicidal destruction of “Our Common Home.”  (The Pope’s title for his encyclical.)

But I was heartened this week to read about people of faith who walked to Paris (“the People’s Pilgrimage”) from the Philippines and Rome and five continents to bring petitions calling for climate justice, from folks of many diverse faiths,.  1.8 million signatures, delivered to a high UN official on the steps of St. Denis Cathedral this past Sunday.  (One of the most precious of France’s churches, burial place of most royalty, the very first Gothic cathedral.)

A Brazilian cardinal and a South African Anglican bishop handed the UN official the signatures and she cried, thanked them for their millions of miles walked, and joined in on a spontaneous dance of Joy. <http://catholicclimatemovement.global/figueres-accepts-nearly-1-8-million-faith-petitions-and-pope-sends-his-participation-in-paris/>

There’s that word again, Joy.  Francis ended his encyclical with Hope.  Paris of all cities longs for Peace.  And we await this Advent the renewal of Love in our midst.  Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.