“Kamui”

 

It’s been a while since we’ve nibbled on some food for thought.

 I came across a word recently, not the usual Hebrew or Greek word used in Scripture, but a word linked to the first settlers of what we now know as Japan.  So, this word will never be found in your Bible – it is “Kamui” that has piqued my curiosity.

A brief back story: the Ainu were the aboriginal settlers of Japan. These indigenous people, migrating from as far as North America, lived in perfect harmony with nature, and their entire perspective of life centred around “Kamui”, the belief that every living thing possesses a sacred spirit; that everything in nature has a soul – trees, animals, rivers and streams – in other words, all of creation.

On hearing this, a Scripture verse immediately came to mind,

But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if my followers didn’t say them, these stones would shout them.” – Luke 19:40 (ERV)

Then, the creation story…

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth great quantities of creatures with living souls and fowl that may fly above the earth upon the face of the firmament of the heavens.” – Genesis 1:20 (JUB)

Then Noah and all the animals…

“So they went into the ark with Noah, two by two of all living beings in which there was the breath and spirit of life.” – Genesis 7:15 (JUB)

And that made me think of something else I’d once read…

“Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?” – Ecclesiastes 3:21 (NRSVUE)

The soul, “nefesh” in Hebrew, is the vital substantial life force in all living creatures. God, at creation gave life to everything that He created.

Job 12:10 tells us that “the soul of every living thing” is in God’s hand.

photo by O'Reilly Lewis

In our origin story, ante-fall, Adam lived in perfect harmony with the rest of creation. Could this concept of “kamui” been the original intention of Creation? When God’s wind swept over and hovered over the void and God spoke life into existence and pronounced His creation as good, then formed man and placed him in the Garden; could this concept of “kamui” been the intention?

To live in harmony with all of creation, like the indigenous Ainu, and see God in every aspect of His creation; isn’t that how we are told to live?

This Truth is written clearly in Romans 12:16 (ESV), “Live in harmony with one another.” And Romans 1:20 (GNT) “Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made.”

This harmonious life is what existed once, where God brought all the animals to Adam, who named them (Genesis 2:19) and all the animals that lived in the ark with Noah and his family (Genesis 7:15-16) is evidence.

Beloved, let’s strive to live in harmony with each other, I know that the animal part is pushing it, but the prophet Isaiah tells us that,

“The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion will feed together, and a little child will lead them.”

So let us chew on this a while. Amen?

Amen †

 

Shelley Johnson “Kamui” © July 15, 2025