Earththhh Day

     I was too tired from our Guatemala trip to blog on April 22, Earth Day, but I did ponder it. My sister has a reactionary approach, if the mislead masses are planting trees and conserving energy, she will chop down a tree and leave all the lights on.  I try for a more moderate, hopefully Biblical, approach.  I am very thankful for the Earth, it is my home planet, I would be lost without it.  However, though the Earth is full of life, it is an inanimate object, and there is no way to show gratitude to an inanimate object.  Our planet is a gift from God and, like all blessings, should be taken care of.  Our treatment of our gifts, whether it is our body, our home or another tangible object, show our attitude toward the giver.
     Christians are responsible to be good stewards of all the blessings God has given us, including the earth.  My childhood was filled with slogans like "Give a hoot, don't pollute." and "Don't be a litterbug".  That is because for some time the outdoors had been regarded as both a playground and a garbage dump.  When I was 10 my grandparents took me to Yellowstone National Park.  Back then it was perfectly okay to feed the wildlife because the animals were expected to do something cute to entertain the visitors, a type of wilderness theme park. The Earth is a blessing, but it is meant to direct us to its Creator.  The miracles Jesus performed during his earthly ministry were huge blessings to the recipients: restored or created health, eyesight, hearing, even life, but as John spells out so clearly in his gospel, the miracles were signs to point us to Christ.  The heavens and earth are signs meant to point us to the glory of God.  My BSF leader used to illustrate the secondary nature of the sign by comparing camping at the Glacier Park sign in the Kmart parking lot to camping in Glacier Park itself.  
     I had an older friend named Evelyn who would write "Thank you" under her name when she endorsed the back of checks that had been sent to her as gifts.  I tried to explain that banks no longer return the checks to the customers, they just send photostats of the front. The only person who saw her thank you note was the teller who cashed the check.  That is what I feel about Earth Day.  No matter how eloquent the words or elaborate the celebration, you are talking to the gift, not the giver.  We can recycle, plant a tree, even hug a tree anytime we choose, but the best way to show appreciation for the Earth, is to praise its Creator.