hugging trees.

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. Kevin and I had a trip up island to make and it took a little longer than expected...

Be stewards of the Earth. Or in more modern language, be caretakers. Look after the Earth as God's representatives. Are we doing that?

The Bible is clear that we're to use what's here. In some translations, we're to have 'dominion' over it. Certainly, the fact that we name the animals implies that they are under our care and for our use/benefit.

Like anything else, culturally we've taken some extremes. On one side, we exhaust and plunder the Earth stripping away vast amounts of resources for immediate monetary gain and to suit our own desires. We pollute creation with toxins that come from our excessive lifestyles in the interest of simplicity, economics and in many cases, just plain laziness.

And on the other side, we have the environmentalists that all but worship the earth. Leave everything alone. Don't touch it or use it. Nothing can happen without a protest. The earth has as much right to be here as we do. Humanity is evil and the earth is the only thing truly good and pure.

The Psalmist writes that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Everything belongs to God. So it's God's to choose who gets to use what and for how long. Elsewhere in Scripture, it says that if God wants to make something special to be savored and something else to be exhausted and used up, that's His choice. (my translation) Our job is to figure out which is which - not for our benefit but for God's. God is the provider of our lives AND the earth. We are meant to worship Him - not the earth - and certainly not ourselves and our affluence.