This post comes from a friend, Micah Brickner, who publishes a blog called ORANGE FAITH.
www.orangefaith.blog

The More You Know

Posted by orangefaith in Adam, Creation, Environment, Genesis, God, Green

Today in Mechanicsburg many people gathered to celebrate a belated Earth Day. It was a very interesting celebration with music, food, green merchandise. The environmentalist craze has become, well... exactly that: a craze. It makes me think about how God has always been an environmentalist. God created this world and He said it was good. God loved/still loves His creation.

When God created Adam He gave Adam dominion over God's creation. (Genesis 2:15) Some translations use the word "care" instead of dominion, but I prefer the word dominion. This literally means that we have been made rulers over the land. Many people interpret this wrongly by choosing to believe that it means we can abuse God's creation. Masters do not care about their slaves, they only care about the economy that the slaves produce and feed through their labor. And so many people have come to believe that this was what God meant when He called mankind to be lords over the land.

Jesus tells us that a master is no greater than his slave. (John 13:16) If we learn to love God and love people, this also means that we need to learn to love His creation. If we are the master and creation is our slave, should we not care for it with the same tenderness that we have towards our brothers and sisters? It is true that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, but we still have to live here in the mean time. We still need to drink this water, breathe this air, eat this food.

You can call me a hippy, but it does not bother me. God wants us to be good stewards with all of our resources. If God wanted to destroy this planet He could do it without the assistance of mankind. While God is very much alive in our lives, He expects to not just sit around waiting for Him to clean the lakes and recycle our bottles. In a changing world where caring for the environment has become popular, we have a duty to show people that we as the church also care for God's creation. This is just another way of showing our love to the world.

The more you know.