Beyond their fundamental origin, being created also means that plants and animals continue to be held in life and empowered to act at every moment by the Giver of the gift. Without this sustaining power they would sink back into nothingness. A beautiful metaphor from a 20th-century philosopher expresses this insight: the Creator 'makes all things and keeps them in existence from moment to moment, not like a sculptor who makes a statue and leaves it alone, but like a singer who keeps her song in existence at all times.' There is an ongoing relationship involved. An unbroken flow of divine goodness sustains the existence of the universe in every instant, while creatures exist with an absolute reliance on this life-giving power for their own being and action. Divine creativity is active here, now, in the next minute, or there would be no world at all. Theology traditionally speaks about this music in language of the Spirit, the personal presence of the transcendent God: 'The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said' (Wis. 1.7).
The evolving history of life is still underway. In and through the suffering and death of billions of creatures new forms continue to emerge, and what lies ahead is not yet known. The ever-creating God of life, source of endless possibilities, continues to draw the world to an unpredictable future, pervaded by a radical promise: at the ultimate end of time, the Creator and Sustainer of all will not abandon creation but will transform it in an unimaginable way in new communion with divine life. Being created means that living creatures are the bearers of a great and hopeful promise:
'Behold, I make all things new' (Rev. 21.5).
— Elizabeth A. Johnson, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love