Unwavering Conformity: A 21-day Study in StewardshipSample

Land of Delight

Psalm 104 is a song of praise to the Creator God. It paints a picture of a land of delight, a land created by a God who is 'clothed with splendor and majesty' (v.1). It is a land as Eden must have been: the waters are plentiful, the food grows in abundance for the animals, and humans cultivate the earth. The days come and go, the seasons turn and God breathes in and out, giving breath to all he has created and also taking it away. He sends his Spirit and new life is created; the earth is renewed. Everything is as it should be. Everything is in balance just as it will be again when all things have been renewed: God, humans, animals, plants, earth - all living in harmony. Peter DeVos and the other authors of Earthkeeping in the Nineties address the nature of that harmony:

“Relationships, among the living things and between them and the non-living environment, are highly complex. Relationships and interactions are essential to the perpetuation of the health and beauty of the ecosystems!”

As we understood more of the balanced intricacy of the biosphere, fewer and fewer people are willing to consider it all a meaningless accident; in the past decade it has become increasingly common for people to speak of the earth in terms of some mysterious purpose! Once again, in stumbling ways, creation is turning us toward the Creator. For this balance in the ecosystem is, to the Christian, an indication of a Creator who does all things well. The life-sustaining beauty of the created earth declares the glory of God, as God declares its goodness. Thus the more we understand of the intricacy of a healthy ecosystem, the more we learn of the Creator. Nevertheless, the intricacy occurs within [healthy] ecosystems, the balance is maintained by death. And death - of a plant, an animal, or another person - reminds us that we too are creatures. We are part of the biosphere!

It is true that we have a personal relationship with God, we are 'made in his image' (see Genesis 1:27) and thus we stand apart in some ways from the rest of creation. But it is also clear that God has created us as he has all other creatures. We, too, are organisms, living within a rich but limited world. We share with all creatures fundamental biological needs: the need for energy and minerals, for food, air, and water! The life of the earth is our life, and we depend upon it. Thus the Christian respect for creation has a twofold source: believers delight in it as God's work and respect it as they respect their own bodies - for in a sense the biosphere is our extended body.