Midweek Faith Lift
“For the Beauty of the Earth”
Su Podraza-Nagle LUT
4/18/2026
This beautiful prayer for earth is found in the Unity4Today e-newsletter. Let’s take a moment:
Our Mother’s Prayer
Our Mother, whose name is Earth,
Hallowed be your ground.
Praised be for your lands
And your skies
And your rolling seas.
Your gardens thrive; your spirit alive
Through woodlands, streams,
Mountains, and plains
Everywhere.
Grant us this day our needs for tomorrow,
And refresh us with your living waters.
Forgive us our mistreatment
As we would forgive those who cause you harm.
Lift us from negligence, and deliver us from greed,
For yours is the home, and the beauty,
And the life that sustains us,
And we would love, respect, and care for you
Now and ever, ever forward.
—R. Dennis Wiancko
On the sacred occasion of Earth Day, April 22, 2026, we are invited into more than appreciation. We are invited into realization. Not simply that the Earth is beautiful, or even that it is worth protecting, but that the Earth itself is a living expression of God, and that we are not separate from it.
In the teachings of Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore, we come to understand that Spirit is not distant. God is not somewhere else. God (Infinite Presence, Energy) is the very life, intelligence, and substance that forms everything we see, and everything we are.
So today, we do not stand on the Earth as observers.
We awaken as participants in divine life expressing itself as Earth.
It’s not just about conservation, it’s about consciousness.
Charles Fillmore taught that substance is the underlying reality of all form. The invisible essence from which all things are made. This substance is spiritual. It is alive. It is intelligent.
What we call “earth,” soil, mountains, oceans, forests, is not separate from God. It is God made visible. It is divine idea clothed in form.
When we begin to see the Earth in this way, our relationship with it changes. We no longer see it as a resource to consume, but as a sacred expression to honor.
The ground beneath our feet is not just ground, it is living substance, responding to divine law, expressing divine order.
And here is the deeper truth:
The same substance that forms the Earth forms you.
You are made of the same divine essence as the rivers, the trees, the air, and the stars. There is no separation, only different expressions of the One Life.
The challenges we see in the world, pollution, imbalance, environmental crisis, do not begin in the outer world. They begin in consciousness.
They arise from the belief that we are separate from life.
When humanity sees itself as separate from the Earth, it becomes easy to exploit, to neglect, to misuse. But when we awaken to unity, something shifts. Care becomes natural. Respect becomes instinctive. Love becomes the guiding force.
Charles Fillmore reminded us that thoughts are creative. The outer world reflects the inner state of mind. If we hold thoughts of separation, we will see fragmentation. If we hold thoughts of unity, we begin to experience harmony.
Earth Day, then, is not just about conservation, it is about changing consciousness.
In the Genesis story, humanity is given dominion over the Earth. This word has often been misunderstood. But in Unity, dominion does not mean domination. It means spiritual authority grounded in love and wisdom.
To have dominion is to align with divine law. It is to express intelligence, care, and balance. It is to be a conscious steward of life.
We are not here to control the Earth, we are here to cooperate with it, to recognize its sacred nature, and to participate in its unfolding.
Dominion means we take responsibility not only for our actions, but for our thoughts, our words, and our intentions.
Because all these shapes the world we experience.
In the book “How to Let God Help You” by Myrtle Fillmore, she states, “Blessing (as a verb) has not lost its power since the time when Jesus used it…”
What if we applied this same principle to the Earth?
What if, instead of speaking fear and despair about the planet, we spoke words of blessings?
What if we affirmed:
The Earth is whole.
The Earth is sustained by divine life.
The Earth is renewing itself in divine order.
This is not ignoring problems. This is aligning with Truth at a deeper level. The level where transformation begins.
Blessing is not passive. It is creative power in action.
A simple example of this would be, watch a gardener or a person we would call having a “Green Thumb.” Plants can respond positively to human speech and vibrations. Studies, including experiments suggest that plants exposed to encouraging words and positive vibrations may grow healthier and faster than those neglected or subjected to harsh sounds, often due to physical stimulation of their cells.
Unity teaches that the body is a temple of the living God. Let’s expand that idea.
The Earth itself is a body, a vast, interconnected expression of divine life.
The forests function like lungs, breathing life into the atmosphere
The waters flow like blood, carrying nourishment across the planet
The soil acts as a foundation, supporting growth and renewal
And just as our thoughts affect our physical body, humanity’s collective consciousness affects the Earth.
When we pollute the Earth, we are, in a sense, polluting the larger body of which we are a part. When we heal the Earth, we participate in our own healing.
This is why separation is the great illusion. We are not standing on the Earth, we are within it, of it, and expressing through it.
When we live in harmony, the Earth reflects harmony.
When we live in imbalance, the Earth reflects imbalance.
This is not punishment, it is correspondence.
We are not separate from the Earth’s condition. We are participants in it.
This is where Earth Day becomes deeply spiritual. It is not only about recycling or reducing waste, though those matter, it is about aligning our inner world, our consciousness, with divine order so that the outer world reflects harmony.
Back in elementary school, I had a teacher who would always say, “Messy desk, messy work! Clean out your desks! Who’d have thought that one statement is so true on so many levels.
So, How do we come back into alignment and correspondence within our part of the world?
Think in harmony with Divine Order
Speak words that bless and uplift
Act as conscious stewards of life.
Start where you walk, live and have your being. Right where you are.
Earth Day is a call to awaken, not to guilt, not to fear, but to awareness.
It is a reminder that we are spiritual beings entrusted with the privilege of expressing life on this planet.
Charles Fillmore said, “Change your thought and you change your world.”
This includes the natural world.
Imagine what would happen if humanity collectively embraced the truth of unity:
The Earth itself is a body, a vast, interconnected organism expressing divine life. What do you think the Artemis ll crew thought as they viewed earth from their travels around the moon?
Perhaps…….
That every tree is an expression of divine life
That every river carries sacred substance
That the soil is like flesh, nourishing growth.
Such awareness would naturally lead to different choices. Choices rooted in respect, care, and love.
Spiritual awareness must be lived. It must move from idea into expression.
So how do we embody this truth on Earth Day and beyond?
First, we cultivate awareness.
We take time to be present with nature. Not as something outside us, but as something we are part of.
Second, we practice gratitude.
We give thanks for the Earth’s abundance, for food, air, water, beauty. Gratitude aligns us with the flow of good.
Third, we act with intention.
Our daily choices matter. How we consume, how we care, how we engage with the world, these become spiritual practices.
Fourth, we bless the Earth.
Through prayer, through thought, through words, we affirm truth.
These are not small actions. They are powerful expressions of consciousness.
One of the most beautiful truths in Unity is that life is always seeking to express more fully. Renewal is built into the very nature of existence.
We see this in the cycles of the Earth:
Seeds become plants
Winter gives way to spring
What appears dormant comes back to life
This same principle is active now. No matter what challenges we see, renewal is possible. Healing is possible. Transformation is possible.
Not because of human effort alone, but because divine life is always at work.
Our role is to align with it.
Let us hold a vision together, not as wishful thinking, but as spiritual realization:
A world where humanity lives in harmony with the Earth.
A world where the sacredness of life is recognized and honored.
A world where decisions are guided by wisdom and love.
In Unity, we understand that holding such a vision is not passive. It is an act of creation.
We are planting seeds in consciousness that will bear fruit in experience.
The Earth is a living expression of God.
Divine substance flows through all creation.
We are one with the life of this planet.
Through awakened consciousness, harmony is restored.
Earth Day is not just a moment—it is a movement of awareness.
It is an invitation to remember who we are:
Not separate beings struggling on a fragile planet,
But spiritual expressions of divine life, participating in a living, sacred Earth.
And as we awaken to this truth, we do not merely hope for a better world
We begin to live it into being.
And let’s start right now and live it into being as we sing our way into meditation.
Meditation
Take a slow, deep breath in, and as you exhale..
Feel your body relax.
And one more time…..
Imagine yourself standing on soft earth…
Feeling the ground steady beneath you.
Is it soft? Hard? Cold? Damp perhaps?
Feel the connection…the being part of…
You are of the earth and earth is a part of you.
Now see a golden light rising from the soil, wrapping you in warmth and peace.
As you breathe, let this light remind you that you are part of something greater, something sacred.
Know that just as the earth regenerates, so too can you. You are a channel of divine life, renewing yourself with each breath.
So for a moment, just breathe in this moment, comforted, grounded.
We come back to this present moment, carrying this sense of peace and connection with you, knowing you are a blessing to the earth.