The great religions of the world recognize that one of the Divine’s primary functions is that of Creator of All That Is. In the past twenty years, the "new" science has visualized a cosmology that is congruent with a creation spirituality—namely, that the universe is not dead, inert matter, or a machine (as Enlightenment thinkers suggested), but that all of creation lives, breathes, grows, and changes. Stars are born, and stars die. Life evolves. Our consciousness embraces new concepts as they emerge.

One such concept is what theologians call "panentheism," the notion that God is in everything and everything is in God. (This is not the same as "pantheism," which proposes that everything is a god.) When we recognize that Divinity takes part in our entire sphere of being, inside and outside, we also realize that we have a tremendous responsibility to be not only caretakers of All That Is but also co-creators with the Divine. We have a divine birthright, an inheritance through which we perpetuate the ancestors, past, present, and yet to come. Our entire existence, then, becomes an expression of God, a gift from God, and a gift back to God.

Mystics of all ages have recognized this. The Hebrew psalmist notes that the trees clap their hands and sing praises in the presence of their creator. Alice Walker in The Color Purple echoes this sentiment when Shug points out that trees do everything we do except talk and likewise do everything they can to get our attention. Jesus taught that his heavenly Parent has such regard for every part of creation that the birds of the air and the lilies of the field are always provided for out of God’s bounty. Hafiz, the Sufi poet, asserts, "God has a root in each act and creature that he draws his mysterious Divine life from." The Dalai Lama challenges his followers to recognize Spirit in everything through outwardly-directed acts of kindness and compassion. Meister Eckhart calls this "breakthrough." We literally break through our barriers and enter into Creation/Spirit when we both acknowledge All That Is and then seek to transform it and make it better through our acts of love.

Now that the summer season is past and we settle down to a simpler, quieter life here at the beach, why not spend some time communing with the Creator of All That Is, in order to discern how we might co-create a more positive Rehoboth? How can we be more hospitable not just to out-of-town guests but to ourselves and to the species that exist here with us and are being driven away because of greed and profiteering? How can we recapture the beauty that brought us here in the first place yet slips away each time a bulldozer prepares for more condos? Responsibility is part of being human, part of being heirs of Spirit—it’s our "ability to respond." Have we lost it or perhaps sold it? How do we jumpstart it so that everyone and everything may live amid beauty and peace? How do we take our place inside of God?