Reflecting on God's creation

When I was a kid, we moved from Queens, NY, to the Adirondack Park region in upstate NY. It was a huge change for our family. We went from living in the concrete jungle in the shadow of an elevated train, to the Adirondack woodlands nestled in pine trees. We transitioned from living in a home with everything our small family needed, to a home that had been abandoned for years and hidden from the road because of all of the overgrown weeds and wildflowers. It was, at the very least, surreal.

I remember walking into our new ‘home’ only to hear chipmunks scurrying throughout the house. It was a mess…not dirty, just a mess from being abandoned for so long. The very steep stairs leading up to the bedrooms creaked under our weight. Up there was not much better.

I suppose being a city kid I should have been devastated. But, I wasn’t. It was a kind of adventure in a weird old house with some old stuff for us to rifle through. What was even better, though, was beyond the four walls of that house. Outside the pine trees swayed in the summer breeze whispering a song as we fought our way through the brush like explorers hacking through a vast wilderness. Before too long, we found a few apple trees, and deep within the woods filled with ash, pine, cherry, maple and birch trees, we found a small creek. The creek was just a few inches deep and crystal clear with moss-covered rocks that looked liked hair moving with the current of the water. It was cool and refreshing and there even was a stretch of the creek that had a sandy bottom that I loved to bury my toes in. I loved our weird old creaky house. I loved our woods.

In the city, I had a tough time finding nice leaves to put in my fall collages for school; now I had tons and tons of leaves to choose from. In the city I often played out on the sidewalk with a garden hose from our yard to make puddles. Now I had my very own creek with water that never seemed to end. The sunsets were breathtaking. The nighttime sky had more stars than Hayden Planetarium. It was during that first summer living in the Adirondacks that I began loving the skies, trees, wildflowers, rocks, creek and critters in the forest. A whole new world opened up for me. I felt like everything around me was put there just for me and my family.

Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.” God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. –Genesis 1: 26-27

With all of the environmental issues in the news these days, I believe that humanity’s charge is to take care of this earth recognizing that we, too, are God’s creation. This earth, and everything in it, has been the handiwork of our Awesome Creator. Are we appreciating the earth and it’s resources with reverence and awe for the Creator?

What if we applied John Wesley’s stewardship principles (Sermon on Luke 16:9) to our care for the earth?

“The first of these is (he that heareth, let him understand!) ‘Gain all you can.’ Here we may speak like the children of the world: We meet them on their own ground. And it is our bounden duty to do this: We ought to gain all we can gain, without buying gold too dear, without paying more for it than it is worth. But this it is certain we ought not to do; we ought not to gain money at the expense of life, nor (which is in effect the same thing) at the expense of our health.” …

“Having gained all you can, by honest wisdom and unwearied diligence, the second rule of Christian prudence is, ‘Save all you can.’ Do not throw the precious talent into the sea: Leave that folly to heathen philosophers. Do not throw it away in idle expenses, which is just the same as throwing it into the sea. Expend no part of it merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life.” …

“But let not any man imagine that he has done anything, barely by going thus far, by ‘gaining and saving all he can,’ if he were to stop here. All this is nothing, if a man go not forward, if he does not point all this at a farther end. Nor, indeed, can a man properly be said to save anything, if he only lays it up. You may as well throw your money into the sea, as bury it in the earth. And you may as well bury it in the earth, as in your chest, or in the Bank of England. Not to use, is effectually to throw it away. If, therefore, you would indeed ‘make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,’ add the Third rule to the two preceding. Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then ‘give all you can.’” …

“I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, act up to the dignity of your calling! No more sloth! Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might! No more waste! Cut off every expense which fashion, caprice, or flesh and blood demand! No more covetousness! But employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree to the household of faith, to all men! This is no small part of ‘the wisdom of the just.’ Give all ye have, as well as all ye are, a spiritual sacrifice to Him who withheld not from you his Son, his only Son: So ‘laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that ye may attain eternal life!’” (http://www.cambridgestudycenter.com/giving/wesley.htm)

My passion for creation is deeply rooted in childhood memories. With today, comes an opportunity to show my Creator how much I appreciate this earth and everything in it. I see such wisdom and love for God in Wesley’s words that need not be limited to the monetary resources God has blessed us with, but ALL of the resources God has blessed us with.

As a child, I loved my world of tree limb forts, and minnows in the creek. As an adult, I love to watch the sun rise over the horizon of the ocean. I love to walk on the beach and meditate on the spiritually musical sounds of the waves crashing along the shore. I feel close to my Creator when I’m inundated by the sights, sounds and smell of creation. I pray that we will be a nation that longs to pass the beauty and wonder of God’s creation to the generations to come.