One of Eugene Peterson's concerns in his book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, is to get us to see that creation is sacred—all of creation. It is easy for us to look at the grandeur and beauty of the mountains or to bask in the warmth of the spring sun and recognize the beauty of creation. Yet, when we find ourselves looking at the pinnacle of God's creation, humanity, that is not often the case."There is a great deal of so-called creation  appreciation, or 'love of nature,'" Peterson writes, "that prefers to look the other way when men and women appear on the scene." But, he argues, Genesis 2 won't allow us to do that because of how integral humanity is to creation.

Peterson tells this story to make his point:

Several years ago one of my students who lived a distance away and rode a crowded bus to the college each day said to his wife as he went out the door one morning, 'I'm just going to go out and immerse myself in God's creation today.' The next day his parting words were the same. On the third day, she called him back, 'Don't you think you ought to go to class today? A couple of days walking in the woods or on the beach is okay, but don't you think enough is enough?'

He said, 'Oh, I've been going to class every day.'

'Then what,' she said, 'is all this business about immersing yourself in creation?'

'Well, I spend forty minutes on the bus each morning and afternoon. Can you think of a setting more thick with creation than that—all these people created, created in the image of God, created male and female?'

'I never thought of that,' she said.

'You mean you've never read Genesis?'

As big of a challenge as it is, we need to learn to see the beauty in the broken. "I'm not suggesting it is easy," Peterson concludes, "...I'm only insisting that it is necessary" (82-83).