A Life Shaped by Wonder
Last Wednesday, the world said goodbye to one of its great observers of life when Jane Goodall died at the age of 91. She was in Los Angeles on a speaking tour -- still traveling, still teaching, still reminding us to pay attention -- when her long and extraordinary journey came to an end.
Goodall was born in London in 1934 to an ordinary home and an ordinary life, but she grew into a woman whose curiosity reshaped how we understand creation itself. As a young girl, she would sit for hours watching chickens lay eggs or read Tarzan of the Apes and imagine herself in Africa. She had no formal university degree when she set out for Tanzania -- only a notebook, binoculars, and a sense of wonder that refused to fade.
In 1960, Goodall's wonder caught the attention of anthropologist Louis Leakey, who sent her to the Gombe Stream Reserve to observe chimpanzees in the wild. What she found there transformed science as well as the human heart. She noticed that chimpanzees were not the mechanical creatures many had assumed; in truth, they were relational, emotional, even spiritual in their own way. They used tools. They comforted one another. They formed deep family bonds.
Goodall’s approach was radical for its time. She refused to number her subjects like data points; instead, she gave them names like David Greybeard, Flo, and Goliath because she saw in them the spark of God’s good creation. Through her eyes, the natural world became personal again -- not an abstraction to be managed but a community to be honored.
Over the years, she built an extraordinary legacy: founding the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, launching the Roots & Shoots youth movement, and advocating for animal welfare and environmental justice around the globe. Presidents honored her, universities awarded her doctorates, and kings and queens knighted her. And through it all, she kept her message astonishingly simple: Every one of us can make a difference, one small act at a time. “It’s in our hands,” she would say with quiet conviction.
Consider how closely that phrase aligns with our Inside Out journey this fall. We have been exploring how inner emotions and faith convictions shape the outer contours of our lives -- how fear, joy, sadness, and hope find expression in the way we treat others and the world around us. Jane’s life embodied that movement from the inside out. She let her childlike curiosity become her calling. Her inward compassion for creation became outward stewardship. Her belief that life is sacred -- every life -- became her testimony.
In Scripture, Jesus reminds us that even the smallest actions have eternal weight. Consider Matthew 10:42, for example: “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water… that person will certainly not lose their reward." In a similar way, Goodall lived her life with a kind of gospel patience, trusting that small acts of care could redeem a world that often forgets to notice.
As we remember her this week, perhaps the best way to honor her legacy is not with words but with attention and intention: to look closely at the life around us, to listen deeply, to act kindly. The God who formed the chimpanzee in Gombe and the human heart in each of us is still at work, calling us to see creation as Jane did -- with eyes wide open, and hearts and hands ready to respond.