My family’s typical beach landing goes something like this: we find a good spot to drop our gear, then I promptly sprint like mad toward the sea, literally leaving my family in the dust (but cherishing them in my heart the whole way). My flight honors a family rule: Daddy goes in first. The water is cold that time of year, but I don’t care. I charge toward the welcoming menace of those mighty waves and undignifiedly crash right into them. And then I scream. As I said, the water is cold! But mostly my shouts are for joy. I hit higher pitches than my four-year-old daughter can. (And her cries can crack windows in the neighboring county!) After I’m pleasantly pummeled back toward the shore, I gain my sea legs and take in my surroundings: my family to one side (getting rather impatient) and a panorama of boundless sky and sea to the other. My most beloved people with me in one of the world’s loveliest locales, my soul breathes deeply, and I am free. But I’m not at all carefree.

As my youngest children happily, nervously approach the swirling sea, I’m acutely aware that my happy place could suddenly become hostile. An unseen rip current could pull any of us offshore and beyond help. The churning depths would pity neither parent nor child. How strange that the waters that soothe the human soul can turn deadly and swallow us whole! The sea can swell to the size of a small mountain and destroy an entire island civilization. When God finished His work of creation, He said that it was all very good. But there is something very not good about creation becoming a killer, sometimes on a massive scale. So, what in the world happened? And why do we have such vital affection for places that can treat us with such violent indifference? Scripture explains.

Genesis 1 and 2 tell us that humanity was the climax and crown of God’s creation. Bearing God’s image and likeness as our essential identity, we were to rule the world in God’s name as His beloved companions. But Genesis 3 tells us that we were not content to represent God; we wanted to replace Him. Under the serpent’s tutelage, we struck at our Creator’s character and sovereignty. We committed cosmic treason, and everything in our stewardship suffered. The good, pliant earth brought forth hurtful thorns. Nature felt the new and terrible need to defend itself.

There’s always been a symbiotic relationship between the condition of our personhood, body and soul, and the condition of the world. When we sin in word, thought, and deed, our hostility toward the Creator continues to harm His creation. The Old Testament prophet Hosea laments: “The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is only swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds. . . . Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away” (Hosea 4:1–3).