Caretakers of Creation

(Posted July 12, 2024)

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love ... Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” --- Carl Sagan

Every day when I come home and climb the granite stairs to our front door, I am greeted by this: a tiny petunia so intent upon survival that it thrives and blooms out of a hairline crack in the granite, where the sun beats the pavement all day. (Photo above.)

Elsewhere in our yard, there are dozens of plants that I carefully nurture: the right soil, proper feeding, abundant watering. Some of these are doing well. Still others have already lost the survival battle despite my best efforts. But never have I thought to include the tiny petunia in that routine of care. What kind of insistence on life drives this speck of life, despite me?

God’s ‘Theater of Creation’

God’s world is all around us. It provides us with “the theater of creation,” a constantly changing universe of newborn stars and dying old suns, plus on our planet, the ballet of things that make it better and things that can destroy life as we know it. And here we humans are in the middle of it.

We’re supposed to be the one species that is intelligent enough to know how to help the earth and also to understand when what we do harms it.

Care for God’s Creation

Now you’d think that providing care for our mother planet would be a concept embraced by everyone -- a no-brainer. But not when the issue involves something we love even more: money.

The humans whose financial income has been built on fossil fuels are much more likely to think climate change influenced by carbon emissions is just a fairy tale to which they refuse to listen.

Right now we’re witnessing a planetary shift in the weather in a time frame that is short. Of course, when First Church’s fifth Meeting House was built in 1909, air conditioning hadn’t been invented. And yet in the nearly 120 years since this edifice was built, it’s only within the last 15 years that summer heat and humidity has become so intense that any of us wished we had it.

Humanity’s Role as Caretakers of the Planet

Which brings me back to Genesis 2:15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”  While in Genesis 1 God tells Adam that he has dominion over the earth, the correct translation of that word really says that he has stewardship – responsibility -- for the natural world.

This weekend we will explore the spiritual ways God has guided us to step up to our role as groundskeepers for our mother planet, and some amazing ways life manages to “push through the granite” and keep passing God’s life force on to all God’s creation.

Join us for a fascinating look at the natural world.