Acts 17:24-28 NIV “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. ‘As some of your poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Today is celebrated as Earth Day. Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the earth's environment. A day recognized as a specific time to take care for what God has given us. It is fitting that this is the day that I decided to turn over a new leaf. No pun intended. I came to this conclusion as I was getting ready and I considered wearing two bras. One for the real things and one for the growing thing under the real ones! I fight with these 10-20 pounds every year and each time it comes back it grows in a new spot! How is that possible? Ok well I know how it is possible that it got there. I am not a very good steward of my body that God has given me. I confess I am a little addicted to junk food and am leaning on the lazy side as far as exercise goes.
Ok now that the confession is out of the way. I will share with you what God showed me today with His creation. I went for a walk by the river (the beginning of the new leaf), my absolute favourite thing to do. I often do it with friends but the greatest friend of all, God, walked with me today. I shared how I have not been taking very good care of myself and how I really can’t do it without Him. He invited me to observe the gifts He gave me today as I went on my walk.
Rustling in the tall dry grass proved to be some prairie dogs having free reign in their playground habitat called earth. Green buds were springing forth from the trees and the grass was starting to join in the color parade. More rustling proved to be a robin, strutting under the trees, trusting the earth to provide its food. As I looked to the other side, dots of green shirts spotted the area as a company of people did their part to clean that space of the earth. Two geese waddled in front of me on the path, not paying me any mind. I walked over a bridge hearing the rush of traffic and the roar of the water streaming by.
More geese swam in the water; if you see them on the surface they appear so calm. I happened to catch a glimpse of their webbed feet; they were paddling furiously under the surface. Their calm presence seemingly a facade as the work underneath was in such contrast to their appearance. All of a sudden it hit me. That was me. I appear to be calm on the surface, but that is not always my heart. When it isn’t my heart, it comes out as some rotten fruit such as a bad attitude or judgement or frustration. Here I was seemingly swimming along when I am furiously paddling for my life. The inside of me is in turmoil and having many thoughts of how do I work this out, what can I do to make this better. How am I going to be a good Christian, lose the weight, make more money, look beautiful, parent my children, be a great wife.... the list goes on and on.
As I was walking I thought of all the creatures I saw. They don’t have to have a special day to celebrate earth. They live it, In Him they live and move and have their being. God has made them so they trust He will provide for them. He has also made us that way. He said in the verse in Acts that He made us so that we would reach out for Him and we would find Him. I found Him in all kinds of places today. He reminded me that it is in Him, that I live and move and have my being. There is nowhere else that I can rest but in Him, that as long as I continue to paddle so furiously under the surface, He will step back and let me do it. He loves me that much to honour my choices, even when they don’t honour Him.
As soon as I stop though, confess and turn back to Him. He is patiently waiting. The Creator of the universe. The One who determined my time on His earth, the One who determined the very place that I live. He gently leads me and says follow me, trust me, my child. Walk with me and be inspired, I look after my creation.
How were you inspired on this Earth day? Were you more aware of the things that you did to the environment today? Did your awareness extend to the Creator of the earth and everything in it? What did that look like?
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Thanks for your post, Deanna! How I celebrated Earth Day was by helping my roommate prepare for her Earth Day lesson for her grade one students. It ended up being quite the evening as she hard-boiled two dozen eggs. For some reason we thought it would be easy to chop off the top of the shell and carve out all of the hard-boiled eggs from the inside, without destroying the shell. The purpose was then for her students to plant seeds in the egg shells and observe them come to life. Of course, a few eggs (and cracked shells) in we gave up and off she went to the store to buy two dozen more eggs. It turned out that chopping the top off of a raw egg was much simpler and a lot less messy.
ReplyDeleteSo in the end, I spent Earth Day trying to figure out how we could use two-dozen hard-boiled eggs and two-dozen raw eggs before they went bad.... Now all we can hope is that the kids will at least enjoy watching their egg-plants grow after the four hour preparations!