Happy Earth Day?

I want to be honest with you up front. I have never been very excited about Earth Day. In the past, I have always associated Earth Day with work. Whatever club or group that I was a member of would send out a flyer telling us where to meet on Earth Day where we would celebrate by picking up 50,000 cigarette butts. Happy Earth Day. Whee!!!!

A Christian environmentalist will care for creation, the creation that God has made. Not just to look at it but care about some of the things that are happening. Some of you do. Some of you are making a difference. You need to do that as a believer in Christ.

I am responsible for God’s creation. Does that include people? Yes. Children? Animals and plants? It includes everything that has to do with our purpose in God’s creation. We’re responsible from the very beginning. In Genesis 1:26 God said “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, over all the creatures that move on the ground.” We are responsible as stewards.

And from the very beginning in Genesis 1:25 Adam and Eve carried out that responsibility. God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it.

Just look at His creation. Even things we’re familiar with. The honeybee. When one bee finds pollen it has a problem; it’s got to tell all the rest of the bees where the pollen is. They don’t talk! So the bee goes back and through an intricate dance, it shows the other bees where the pollen is to be found. It’s absolutely amazing. They make a circle and the number of circles they make shows the distance to the food source. They also show the distance by wiggling their abdomen or their bellies (belly dancer bees). The greater the distance the more slowly she wiggles. The direction of where this flower or group of flowers is, is revealed by how the bee cuts across the circle after this dance. The exact angle that the bee makes tells the bees exactly what angle to take from the sun.

The creation that’s around us is something to be fought for. It’s something that you and I need to stand up, as believers, and say, “It’s God’s creation because it expresses who my Father is” Sometimes in all the argument about global warming and PETA and creation that point is missed. We’re talking about the who. That’s the key. Creation expresses the very character of God.

And of course, when you meet outdoors each and every Sunday, it is not too hard to make the connection between creation, creator and worship!