I trained my eye on a fluffly cloud yesterday as it floated lazily by. It started me thinking about all the things in nature I love. Several months ago we were hiking in the Smokies, and had just sat down for a break when our little group fell silent. Up there, away from traffic and alone in our world you could hear nothing but a tiny breeze in the trees and some distant rippling of water over rocks. Surrounded by enormous pine and oak trees, miles of dirt and rock, rivers of water, and undoubtedly hundreds of animals, the silence was almost shocking. It was if the world had morphed into slow motion as I looked up and around me. It was impossible that these gigantic mountains, comprised of so much dirt, rock, minerals, roots, plants, weeds, animals, trees, and water could be so inconspicuously quiet. I was caught up in it, my mind seemingly whisped clean by a breeze as I hoped no one would break the silence.
I can see, in the relationship we have with nature, how intricately we have been created. In it we find nourishment, shelter, medicine, and even entertainment. It is, to us, our survival and always has been. In the Biblical account of creation, God made everything on earth before he made man, and when we were breathed into existence we were made to fit perfectly into the rest of creation. This gives us a huge investment in the earth. Christians should be the ones shouting the loudest for environmental protection because of it's essential, God-given role in our lives. We inherently love it because it is our life blood. To me, it also erases all doubt that God is real, because I can't reasonably believe that a system this complex and intricate works together because it was randomly blown into existence. Visit Creation Care.org for resources and information on environmental stewardship from an Evangelical perspective.
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