Care for Creation as Evangelization and Worshipနမူနာ

Day Seven: Creation Is Waiting

All of creation is with us on our journey to God. We are unavoidably connected to creation, and creation is unavoidably connected to us. 

Modern life means that we can separate ourselves from the natural world. We don’t spend as much time outdoors as we did in past generations, and so we are losing our understanding of it, our connection with it, and our respect for it.  

The earth today has many scars caused by people who came to do nothing more than get wealthy for themselves, not caring about what they left behind. This is particularly the case in America. The miles of slag piles left by gold prospectors near Idaho City one hundred and fifty years ago is an example. Historically we call it Manifest Destiny. It was actually a spiritual attitude, believing that God had given us this nation, as Americans, to use as we pleased. 

Like the Israelites, we forgot that there were conditions and responsibilities that came with dominion. It was our destiny to control the land so we killed the buffalo and the beaver, we extracted all the minerals, we did everything just because we felt we had the right. this picture of total entitlement is killing the planet today. 

Paul speaks to the Romans about suffering. We all suffer, but this suffering is nothing compared to what we will receive in the Kingdom of God. We might say that the destruction of the environment is a suffering that it has to endure. If it’s on the journey with us, it has to be with us, suffering and all! We could say that it’s just one of those things and that it will all be made right in the end… 

There is a lot that we don’t know. Only God knows who His children really are. It is in the future that these things will be revealed. It is in the present that we are living in. And we live in hope. An attitude of greed or entitlement shows a lack of hope as it shows that really we are living for the present and with a desire for material goods rather than spiritual ones. 

Saying that we’re all waiting – us and all of creation – is kind of another way of saying that we’re all in this together. Death and decay are not the same as destruction. If we truly are waiting for the coming Kingdom, we have to really ask ourselves what relates to the natural order of things, and, ultimately, what relates to sin. 

Questions for Discussion

1. Does this passage change your idea of the Kingdom of God? If so, how? 

2. Is the human destruction of the environment a part of God’s plan? 

3. How does time (our understanding of the past; our personal history; our plans for future generations) influence our spiritual lives