The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15, NIV
If you can talk, you can breathe, which means you are alive.
We take breath for granted. It’s automatic and works without any thought on our part. However, there are things that we can do to prevent breathing from happening.
The same holds true with our planet.
This planet is trying to breathe, but there are things we have done and are doing that make it hard for Mother Earth to breathe.
She has nurtured us longer than we can count, longer than anyone who is here now has been alive. She has been here since God created her out of nothing and flung her into space to orbit the sun, be influenced by the moon, sit among the stars, and commune with the other planets. She has been here for us, time and time again, even when we fail her.
We are not eternal and so we don’t know how long mother earth will be here, but we all want her to be here as long as she can be. That can’t happen if we don’t do something to ensure that. This is not about pointing fingers. This is about asking, “What can I do today and every day to heal and save Mother Earth?”
Adam was given a job, the biggest job of his life, the only job of his life. He was employed by God to take care of this planet. It was to be a symbiotic relationship. God knew that if Adam took care of the planet, the planet would take care of Adam and all the rest of us who were to come.
She has done her part, but we have failed to do our part. Like Adam, we have been caught, distracted, and manipulated by the enemy.
In Adam’s day, it was a serpent in the garden. In our day, it is our over-consumption. We’ve been lied to. We’ve been told that we can drive what we want to drive, consume as much as we want, discard anything anyway we want, use all of the natural resources we want, and live any way we want without consequences.
God told us a long time ago how to take care of this planet, but we have let the serpent cause us to question the voice of God. “Did God really say?” This question led to the original fall then and is leading to another fall now. What are we going to do about it?
In case we try to get off on a technicality and point to Genesis 1:26, where God told us to have dominion over the earth. While we were given dominion, whatever that originally meant, we are also made in the image and likeness of God. Do you think God would do to the planet what humans have done and are doing?
Prompt for Thought: Take a listen to “What a Wonderful World” (Louis Armstrong): https://youtu.be/A3yCcXgbKrE. Take a few minutes to write another love tribute to our planet. What do you think your responsibility is to Mother Earth? What can you do today or in the very near future? Post it, share it, remember it, and live it.
Prayer for the Journey: Mother-Father God, you have given us so much more than life itself. You gave us this planet and all that it contains to help us maintain the life you gave us. We who have been shaped in your image and likeness have been incompetent in the only job that you have given us, to take care of this planet. Please forgive us God and help us to figure out how to make things right and to be good employees, stewards in partnership with this place of beauty and breath. In Jesus’ name, Amen.