And it was Broken and it was Good

I read the most horrible story today. Yet beautiful story. About a dog found in a crate – that he had been trapped in for over a month! As I read the story of rescue, my heart broke.

It broke for the pain and misery the dog endured at the hands of humans.

It broke for the love and compassion of humans who gave him second chance at life.

It broke at the picture of forgiveness – the dog originally hurt by humans, now accepting help from them.

It broke thinking about all the pain and suffering animals (and humans!) endure at the hands of humans.

The dog was left in this crate off the road

It appeared to have tried to claw his way out of his cage…

Emaciated and sick, he was saved and taken to a vet

This is what forgiveness looks like

And I cried out to the Lord, “How Long?!?” “How Long must this continue?”

It was then I realized this. That no matter how long,

I must never stop having a broken heart.

God never stops having a broken heart. His mercy is long-suffering. He desires all to know of His love. As much as I want to ignore the pain in this world, allowing my heart to callous is the same deplorable evil I despise.

My heart must stay broken. I must be the Good Samaritan and have extravagant mercy and love for the pain and hurt around me. Ignoring it, pretending it doesn’t exist, explaining evil away, that does nothing to help those in need. Lord of love, save me from measured mercy.

Reading Revelation 11:18 and 21:3-4 brought me the peace that I prayed for, while still allowing my heart to stay broken, readying my feet for action. God may you use me, and each person in your Church, to see the brokenness of this world as you see it, to have compassion and mercy, to love without counting, to be a light to the darkest corners. Until the day you return to demolish all brokenness. Amen.

The nations rages, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth…See the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.

A Glimpse of Eden through Unlikely Friendships

Every Sunday night my husband and I watch a nature show of some sort. It’s a new tradition we started a few months ago and it has been a real blessing to us. Philippians 4:8 says,

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.

It’s hard to find anything on TV that is true AND noble AND right AND pure AND lovely AND admirable AND excellent AND praiseworthy. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised at just how wonderful is has been to learn about God’s creation every Sunday evening, to marvel at the instrinsic details of the universe and to revel in the beauty of life that we are blessed to take part in.

Last night we watched a show called Animal Odd Couples. It was about dogs and deer friends, goat and horse buddies, even lion and coyote pals! I couldn’t help but think WOW if humans can shape friendships between species, what will it be like when God orchestrates the full harmony of love and life between His creation in the new heaven and new earth? When the wolf and lamb will feed together, when

they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord. Isaiah 65:25

Because ultimately, community and friendship is what all life was created for. In the beginning, all things were good. This earth and all that was upon it lived in unison praising the Lord with their very being.

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Psalm 24:1

Thinking about such things, I can’t help but pray that the Lord would use this broken vessel created in His image to help restore the eden of the past in preparation for the eden to come. We have all been called to care for this creation, to love the people, the animals and the habitats that exist together as created by God for His glory. May the Church lead by example, that the world would see us and know we are Christians by our love…our love to one another, to ALL life.

A Glimpse of Eden: painting by Steve Slimm

Andromeda and Psalm 8

Take a moment to read Psalm 8.

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
 the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Then watch the whole video below (trust me, you need to watch it to the end!) It’s the largest picture ever taken (1.5 billion pixel image (69, 536 x 22, 230) and requires about 4.3 GB disk space taken by NASA)

On January 5, NASA released an image of the Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbour, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The full image is made up of 411 Hubble images, takes you through a 100 million stars and travels over more than 40,000 light years. Well, a section of it anyway.

 

 

Jesus & the Sea

So yesterday I enjoyed a really nice walk along the Clearwater Beach in Florida. It was absolutely mesmerizing, I think I walked for a few hours with my family. And I started to think about how Jesus used to walk by the sea. That’s when his disciples would often find him at the most peculiar moments (i.e.: after he was dead – wait, look there’s Jesus walking on the beach cooking up some fish (John 21:9)! Or when the disciples were busy fishing, or should I say trying to fish with no success when voila, Jesus is there walking on the beach and tells them to throw their nets to the other side (John 21:6). Or when Jesus was teaching some large crowds that gathered near the beach to hear him before he sailed to the other side (Mark 4:1/Luke 5:1)….)

I wondered if God knew that people would enjoy walking along the beach so much when he created it. Maybe that’s a dumb question since it’s God we’re talking about…but at the same time, Jesus was able to fully experience our reality of a beach walk in  his incarnation in this world as a fully human being. And I’d like to believe that’s when he was fully able to appreciate the beauty of this world as we see it.

“Earth’s crammed with heaven…
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

Learning from the Wisest Ant

Proverbs 30 is full of nature! Not to mention a fun 1-2-3-4 pattern going on:

“Three things are never satisfied; four never say, ‘enough’: Sheol, the barren womb, the earth ever thirsty for water, and the fire that never says, ‘enough.’”

Verse 18 continues:

“Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of the eagle in the sky, the way of the snake on a rock, the way of a ship on high seas, and the way of a man with a girl.”

And again in verse 24:

“Four things on earth are small, yet they are exceeding wise: the ants are a people without strength, yet they provide their food in the summer; the badgers are a people without power, yet they make their homes in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard can be grasped in the hand, yet is found in kings’ palaces….Three things are stately in their stride; four are stately in their gait: the lion, which is mightiest among wild animals and does not turn back before any; the strutting rooster, the he-goat, and a king striding before his people.”

Here’s a few thoughts that came to mind when reading these passages: the main one being a theme of HUMILITY:

• No matter how hard we strive to care for this world, it will never be enough until Christ comes back. That doesn’t mean we don’t try. It just means we aren’t God, this world isn’t perfect and there will always be some hurt and hardship.
• We are called to look after this world, yet we may never quite fully know everything. That doesn’t mean don’t seek after knowledge! Just realize that some things are too wonderful for us to understand and we may not find the answer in our lifetime.
• The small things of this world are wise. If we’re too stupid to even notice them, how can we learn from them? Don’t be a fool. Humble yourself, study the ant and learn.

Peace, Justice and Human Rights

I’m trying to read one proverb a day. And when I get through them all, I go back to the beginning and read it all again.

Today I read Prov 29:4 which states,

“By justice a king gives stability to the land, but one who makes heavy exactions ruins it.”

At first glance, it appears this proverb is geared towards rulers and subjects.

But doesn’t this also prove true of the land? We are called to care for this world and bring about justice – but when we make heavy exactions on it (ie: excess trash/rubbish/pollutants/overhunting/over growing/etc…) the land is ruined. Just take a look at these pictures if you don’t believe me.

There is definitely no justice here, no stability. Only heavy exactions and ruin.

46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.

Chinese scientists have warned that the country’s toxic air pollution is now so bad that it resembles a nuclear winter, slowing photosynthesis in plants – and potentially wreaking havoc on the country’s food supply.

the effects of man-made garbage on albatross’ living 1,200 miles away from civilization.

Chinese scientists have warned that the country’s toxic air pollution is now so bad that it resembles a nuclear winter, slowing photosynthesis in plants – and potentially wreaking havoc on the country’s food supply.

Chinese scientists have warned that the country’s toxic air pollution is now so bad that it resembles a nuclear winter, slowing photosynthesis in plants – and potentially wreaking havoc on the country’s food supply.

46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.

Every 15 minutes, 1 elephant is killed by poachers for their ivory tusks. And in Asia, human-elephant conflicts often lead to locals poisoning elephants.

When oil sticks to a bird’s feathers, it causes them to mat and separate, impairing waterproofing and exposing the animal’s sensitive skin to extremes in temperature. This can result in hypothermia, meaning the bird becomes cold, or hyperthermia, which results in overheating. Instinctively, the bird tries to get the oil off its feathers by preening, which results in the animal ingesting the oil and causing severe damage to its internal organs.

46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.

Vs. 7 continues:

“The righteous know the rights of the poor; the wicked have no such understanding.”

Again, there’s a double meaning. We are called to care for the poor among us. Yet, the plants and animals of this world are also the poor among us that we are called to care for – and most often instead of caring for these, we greedily exploit them for our own gain. And turning a blind eye to creation care as a Christian is like the wicked with no such understanding.

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. -Francis of Assisi

Glorifying God in Thanksgiving

Today I read Psalm 50:15:

Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me

I’ve been saved by God so that I can live for Him. Reading through the rest of the Psalm, I found these characteristics of the God I am called to live for:

• Mighty One who speaks and summons the earth – controls the rising and setting of the sun – the perfection of beauty (vs. 1-2)
• He is not silent and the heavens declare His righteousness (vs. 3-6)
• God is God and He owns every living being and every tree and field of this world. He doesn’t need anything from me – not even my sacrifices (vs. 7-12)
• God wants me to live a life of thanksgiving, and to let my actions and deeds bring glory to Him (vs. 14-15)

The challenge I see here is to live a life of thanksgiving in this world. The first definition of thanksgiving in the dictionary is as follows

the expression of gratitude, especially to God.

The EXPRESSION – I love this! It’s an action, it’s a lifestyle. The way we treat this world that God owns is our expression of gratitude to God. The way we treat the wild animals of the forest, who are God’s, or the cattle on the hills, who are God’s, or the birds of the air, who are God’s, or all things that move in the field, who are God’s. As a Christian, this is the lifestyle that should be pouring out of me in response to the saving work of Christ.

My closing prayer from Revelation 14:7

Fear God, and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgement has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

Prelude

My name is Elizabeth. I love life and the world I share it with: the people, the animals, the plants, the air, life…and God. And when I read through the Bible in my morning devotions, He seems to always be opening my eyes to His heart and love for His creation. So this blog will be a place that I can record my notes on creation care and how we, as God’s people and ambassadors of Christ here on this green earth, should be living in His world.