I’m not one to really get into all the hubub about “Earth Day.”  I try to be a good steward of God’s creation, I learned that in scouting.  My family recycles, we try not to waste too much water (but with a pre-teen girl, that’s near impossible), and both our cars average about 25 miles per gallon, even though they are 10 years old.

I just can’t throw myself into the “Earth Day” excitement.  As my heart is an “idol factory,” always taking the good gifts of God and making them gods themselves, I have seen how “Earth Day” and “Environmentalism” are no different.  We worship “Mother Earth,” but it’s always the “hand of God” that brings disaster, as if “Gaia” and “God” were two equal gods, opposing one another, one loving, one not.  “The Lord our God is one, and we shall have no other gods before Him” (Deut 6:4).  “There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God” (1 Sam 2:2).  “Earth Day” service project, while good and beneficial, become a religious service, “do this and you will recieve absolution for your environmental sins.”  Yeah, so I’m a little skeptical of “Earth Day.”

But this week I read an article by Janie Cheaney of World Magazine that, while not changing my attitude about “Earth Day,” did help me to see Earth’s role in our salvation story anew.  I encourage you to click here to read it.  As Ms. Cheaney noted in her email to me about this article, “I can’t help thinking, especially in reference to Rom. 8:19, that Earth would somehow recognize her King.”

“This Earth Day, thousands of Earth’s devotees will be handing out recycling containers, picking up trash, and urging us to remember our mother. If she had a soul, she might be smiling indulgently at pleas to “make a difference,” even while pointing upward with every fresh-planted seeding. Only one Person really has made a difference.”