Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Then God looked
over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! (Genesis 1:31, New Living Translation)
Perhaps it’s all because of climate
change that November is losing its bad-guy reputation and I should be championing
the Climate Conference in Scotland that is currently trying to get many nations
to agree to ways to battle climate change. But that sun sure felt good. Nevertheless,
I wish them well, although I remain skeptical that anything of real significance
will get done; just ironically, more hot air.
Yesterday, I was reminded of the
great beauty of our planet. Susan and I took a private tour of the stained-glass
windows in Northminster United Church. These windows were designed by our
beloved friend Ron Wilson who passed away not all that long ago. We have several
of Ron’s paintings – one sits on the
wall above this work station. He especially captures the grace, beauty and wonder
of nature scenes.
Each of the nearly twenty windows
is a wondrous depiction of nature’s beauty, each portraying a scene out of nature. It is almost like a tour
of Creation. Butterflies in one, a wind blown cedar in another, lambs in yet
another, a rain storm, loons. Words cannot do them justice; full of colour, movement,
vibrancy, life. Like Creation itself, they were all very good.
Interestingly, the one design which
Ron needed to be persuaded to do was the window depicting a human family. I am
not sure why because he has masterfully designed a window of a young family, holding hands, a child being carried on a dad’s back, all obviously enjoying the world
they are surrounded by. Perhaps in the back of Ron’s mind was the thought that although
humankind is a part of God’s Creation, we are messing up this whole having-dominion-over-it-all
thing. Let nature speak for itself and leave us out of it. But I am guessing.
It is often discouraging to hear what is happening to our world because
of climate change, a human-made catastrophe in the making. I try to do my
little part but I end up thinking what good have I really done. There are still
forest fires, oil spills, plastic islands in our oceans gathering more plastic
by the day, ozone holes, et al. I am not
sure that my little blue box once a week on the curbside is going to fix much
of that. But each of us needs to do what
we can.
There are those who deny or diminish
the effect of climate change. Our government wants to build more highways for
more cars, although they are extolling the virtue of electric vehicles. Oil
producing provinces loathe any pressure on reducing carbon totals. Big
countries like China won’t even participate in the talks in Scotland even
though they are one of the world’s biggest polluters. So what are you and I
supposed to do?
God made Creation for us to
enjoys its beauty, possibilities, wonders and fruits. God gave humanity the task of being caretakers,
responsible custodians, and guardians of the earth’s riches. We are more than a
sixth-day afterthought. We are essentially tasked with protection and security of
the earth and all its resources. If I was at the Scotland conference, I would
simply read the Creation narratives out of Genesis. At the end, I would close my
Bible, look at those world leaders in the eyes and say to them: “We have a
good thing going here. Now, don’t mess this up. God is watching.”
As for you and me, keep on doing
our best, even it seems small in comparison to what needs to be done. It was interesting
to see how the world cleaned itself up during the pandemic. So we know if we try together that our
voices, our actions, our understanding, our commitments can collectively make a
significant difference.
“For the beauty of the earth…
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.”
Dale
No comments:
Post a Comment