Creation Care

The other parents and I were getting off the school bus, when I heard a comment that I thought would be the start of an argument. We had been shuttled upriver to retrieve our vehicles and the canoe trailer after spending the morning paddling downstream. One dad was mocking another: “Are you sure your truck is big enough? Maybe you need something bigger.” The truck in question was as big as they come. It had after-market tires and a lift kit, which meant that a sort of jump step was required to reach the door. 

Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious. - 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

God’s creation is an intricate tapestry, each thread – be it river, mountain, forest or creature – playing an indispensable role. The policies we enact either strengthen or fray this delicate fabric. Conservation isn't just an environmental concern; it's a moral calling rooted in our role of lovers, restorers, and healers of God's creation. As we grapple with environmental degradation, the solutions we champion must aim to heal, not merely for our sake but for generations to come.

To the artist He is the one altogether lovely, and to the educator He is the master teacher. To the philosopher He is the wisdom of God, and to the lonely He is a brother; to the sorrowful, a comforter to the bereaved, the resurrection and the life. And to the sinner he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin from the world. -  John Gerstner

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. - Psalm 62:5

Proverbs states in 14:31 that “Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor Him”. 

Everywhere we look in our culture you will find plastic. One place where you will not find plastic, however, is in the Bible.

Plastics, first created in 1907, began global production in the 1950s. Over the next 70 years, annual production increased nearly 230-fold to 460 million tons in 2019. This growth spurt birthed single-use plastics, now one of the most urgent environmental threats. These plastics, too often buried in landfills or dumped untreated in our water sources, have become emblematic of our culture's convenience obsession.

The hill, once covered densely with trees, is now covered with loose dirt and a few struggling shrubs. A little down the hill is a village of around 40 houses. Each one, 7 to 10 feet off the ground, was built on top of wooden stilts. The part above the ground, on stilts, is a one roomed bedroom. The family sleeps there and most of their worldly possessions are on that level. The space on the ground is used as the kitchen area- where the family cooks and eats together. The area around the house is swept bare, no garbage and not much greenery around the house.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. John 17: 15-18, NIV

We have seen the harm that is brought about by extreme polarity or unwavering binary belief (also described as dualism). And still we can find ourselves gravitating in that direction; is it human nature, or just the easiest way to order our worlds and soften the struggle? Sociologists have studied its negative effects on societies and people pushed to the margins within those binary cultures for many different reasons. I have also seen evidence of this in the natural world where signs of disaster or unhealthy ecosystems get reduced to binary qualities or even worse, monoculture.