Recently at Element Church the pastoral team and interns have been busy blogging their way through a reading schedule that we have challenged everyone at Element to read through.  Below is my first entry, but if you're interested, check out all of the great posts by our team here:  ELEMENT CHURCH BLOG

READ:  Genesis 1 & 2

When I read the origins of all that we know as accounted in Genesis 1 & 2, my imagination begins to pop.  I mean, can you just begin to get your mind around what that must have been like?  I love the wording of the Message Bible:

Genesis 1:1-2 (MSG)
"First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see."

"First this: God..." --- maybe we should stop right there for a moment.  We like to imagine ourselves pretty important in this world, but what tops that statement?  At the beginning of it all...God.  He was there.  It all began from Him...out of all of that nothingness, all that we see & don't see in this world came from Him.  When we sing at church of Him "Holding it all together", what about considering also that all that we know came from Him!  At the elemental root of all that we see, taste, touch, experience, have, and hold dear, we must remember that without Him we have nothing and really are nothing.

Feeling small yet?  I hope so, because compared to the unbelievable power of the God who brought it all together in the first place....you are.

You. are. small.

We all are.

But, as we take that step back and realize the greatness of the One who created it all by SPEAKING it all into existence, I am blown away by the idea of what we read next.

Genesis 1 continues with the story of all that God does in creating our world.  Creation doesn't just happen, it BURSTS onto the scene merely by God mentioning what He wants to happen.  God speaks and creation responds:  Light.  Dark.  Sky.  Oceans.  Land.  Plants.  Animals.  Good...He calls it all very good.

Having said and done all of that, God takes all that He has made and He does the most unlikely thing that I can imagine.  The ALL-POWERFUL, CREATIVE, LIFE-SPEAKING GOD of the UNIVERSE takes all of His creation and gives it to us.

Genesis 2:15 (New Living Translation)
"The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it."

I think it might have been in much better hands before we got to it, what do you think?  Regardless of what we think, the facts remain that God has entrusted a valuable thing in giving us this planet.  But, He didn't just place us here to exist, He had so much more in mind than that.  God TRUSTS us to take care of it.  He gave it to us to manage, and care for, and in doing so the Earth produces what we need to live.  What a wonderful gift and what incredible benefits we are provided when we manage well what God has given us.

The exact opposite is true when we do not correctly care for what God has entrusted to us.  When we foolishly neglect our planet, we can expect that things will die, and sometimes unthinkable and unrepairable damage occurs to our planet...the same one that HE -- the CREATOR of it all -- gave us to take care of.

The events of the past few weeks regarding the oil spil in the Gulf of Mexico have been devastating to watch.  The plants and animals of the Gulf are now swimming in waters that once provided a healthy ecosystem, but are now polluted in such a way that will affect marine, plant, and human life for years to come.  Such is the consequence that we face when we do not properly care for our planet and it's resources.  Too often we have left a horrible blight upon the world that our Creator has entrusted to us.  We all know that the future of our planet rests in our own hands.

As I revisited the Creation story today, the question that leaped out at me was whether or not there are areas in my life where I could do a better job of caring for the world we all live in.  The answer is definitely yes.

Now, I don't claim to be a "tree-hugger" in the sense that many who carry the banner of environmental issues would be, but I do absolutely recognize the responsibility that we ALL need to take in caring for the creation that God has given us.  As I have studied the Bible throughout my life, I have recognized the importance of caring for the things God has given us, including being faithful in managing our finances, in caring for friends and family, and in caring for others in general.   As I read today in Genesis 1 & 2, I believe it is also essential that I place equal emphasis on caring for the world God has given me to live in.

I'm planning on doing my part.  Will you?

Questions
1. How important do you think caring for the planet God gave us is to him?

2. What steps can you take to care for the world we have been given?