We live in a broken world
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we may be reconciled to God and participate in His redemption of the world. Caring for God’s creation and stewarding this world’s resources is one of the many ways we get to participate in loving God and loving our neighbor.
Creation Care as Belonging
In my own personal faith journey, I found I could come to know my Creator through studying and experiencing his Creation. Finding God in the beauty of this world fills me with hope and a sense of belonging - that just as God so loved and created this magnificent planet - he also loves and created me.
Creation Care as Ministry
All people are created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, all people have inherit dignity and value. There are conditions in this world that violate that human dignity. These injustices take many forms, one of which is environmental injustice and racism. Loving and caring for creation is also loving and caring for “the widow and the orphan” - those who are outside the folds of society, those that are marginalized, discriminated against, and have no voice in the world.
Creation Care as Healing
When 'adam (mankind) was cast from the Garden of Eden, not only did mankind fall into sin and death, but so too did creation. As Christians, we are called to be the healing light of Christ in the world, fighting against injustice. We readily acknowledge the broken relationships we have with one another, with God, and within ourselves. We must also just as readily acknowledge the brokenness - and need for healing - with Creation.
Genesis 2:2-3 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation
Psalm 104:14-21 You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart. The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys. You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend it and take care of it.
Leviticus 25:3-5 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.
Romans 8:18-25 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.