“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it”
Psalm 24:1
Noah would get Earth Day. He built the first animal protection shelter. He made the ark and then saw the arc God made. He heard God say, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” (Genesis 9:13). In Leviticus, the Lord says to Moses, “…the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.” (Leviticus 25:23). Oh, I get it. The earth created by God belongs to God. We are guests here, not the owners. We get to enjoy it and we are expected to take good care of it. This doesn’t seem radical. This seems right.
When I think of Earth Day, I think of two Christian concepts: stewardship and compassion. First, stewardship: we are to be faithful stewards of God’s creation. In the language of Genesis 2:15, we’re to “work it and take care of it”. We’re not just to “till it”, we’re also to “keep it”. We’re to sustain and protect it. As Rodney Romney says, “The problem is we think being fruitful means we can overpopulate, that subduing the earth means we can trample and waste it, and that having dominion means we can rule creation according to our own selfish, shortsighted whims.” We’re called to be stewards, not stupid.
Second, when I think of Earth Day, I think of compassion. The outcome of our environmental abuse affects people in this country and around the world. I read this week that more than 5 million children (mostly poor) die each year from diseases related to the environment—asthma, dysentery, cholera, malaria and many more. Bob Musil, a professor of climate change at American University in Washington, DC, writes:
“…the environment is not simply some lovely green thing outside of us, apart from us. It is in us as well. Every molecule passes through us, through the ecosystems that we are part of and which sustain us. God made the whole earth. God cares for all things. Not just polar bears, but people, penguins and the penniless, bunnies and babies, lilies and the learning disabled.” The decisions we make everyday affect not only the air we breathe, but the grandbabies we love. Our choices affect a precious child on another continent. Let us look at the world and all who live in it with concern and compassion.
What can you do for the sake of the world? Plant a tree. Replace a light bulb. Bring your own bag to the grocery store. Don’t drive everywhere you go. Clean up your community. Recycle. Here’s one more: use your own mug when you stop for coffee. Each year, Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups. 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup you used this morning will be sitting in a landfill.
The earth is the Lord’s. What on earth are we doing?
Dennis Lynn
