Message from Lois Leader, High School Teacher

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."

Psalms 24:1

In honor of Earth Day on this past Sunday (April 22), I dedicate my blog entry to God’s creation.

One of the most profound duties God gives us is stewardship over His creation. Scripture tells us how much He loves this work of His hands. After every act of creation He blessed it and declared that it was good. Reading the first chapter of Genesis it is obvious that God takes delight in every aspect of the world He created. Yet He trusted us to be caretakers of His great work of art.

The creation teaches us about the attributes of God:

Psalms 104:24. How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number - living things both large and small.

It shows His infinite compassion:

Matt 6:26. Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. And are you not worth much more than they?

God has established a relationship with us and with our environment:

Genesis 9:8-9. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you - the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you - every living Creature on the earth."

God pays attention to the way we fulfill our role as stewards:

Jer. 2:7. I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and you made my inheritance detestable.

Luke 16:2,10,13. And He called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous in much. You cannot serve both God and mammon.

Although Earth Day was not established as a Christian observance, I think it is a good opportunity to remind ourselves of the trust that God put in us when He gave us dominion over His creation. How we fulfill that trust is an indicator of the respect we hold for the Creator.