We are blessed far more than we can ever realize by the abundance that God created to sustain those he created in his image. The earth produces amazing amounts of food, and just when we think that there are too many people to feed them all, God gives wisdom to produce even more food.
And yet man is often the greatest enemy of the natural supply of things, ultimately to his own harm. God recognized this when he commanded through Moses that the fruit trees should not become victims when people go to war. "Is the tree in the field a man that you should lay siege to it?" God asks.
When God created human beings, he placed them in the middle of a garden of growing things and gave them the responsibility to take care of the garden. "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden.'" (Genesis 2:15-16)
This responsibility for taking care of things did not end with Adam? It is a responsibility that God built into the created order, and it is with us until today. But it seems to be a responsibility we too often forget. As a single individual, it certainly does not feel like my small efforts to be God's agent to protect God's creation can be worth very much. But that does not release me from the responsibility to take care of what God has placed in my care.
Adam was only one individual, and yet God commanded him to take care of the environment. Each one of us as an individual has that same command today.
- 7 MAY -