Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Why does Creation Care matter to God?

Many Christ-followers sometimes wonder what caring for creation has to do with our faith as Christ-followers. I would answer: " Everything!"

Here's a couple straightforward reasons why:
1. Christ-followers should be known for their joy (Galatians 5:22), for their hope, and basically for being people who have LIFE IN ABUNDANCE (John 10:10).
2. Christ-followers have been reconciled to God through Christ (Romans 5:11) and are also the ones commanded to bring reconciliation to all things (Colossians 1:19-20), which includes creation, currently decaying due to no fault of it's own, but because of Adam's sin (Romans 8:19-23).

Simply put then, if we are to be people who are attractive to the world, and if we are the people who should be restoring and redeeming creation from it's bondage to decay (Romans 8:21), then being an ambassador for caring for God's creation is a simple step of obedience for all of us.

This is what I spent one week doing this November with a short-term couple visiting our missions work in La Paz, Mexico. We spent a day doing a beach cleanup with non-Christians. We spent time visiting beautiful places of God's creation in that area: some that have had plenty of efforts to bring them to flourish (Genesis 1:22, 24, 28; 8:17, 9:17) and others that have not. We met with people who never would have heard the gospel but for the environmental care that our missionary friends do in that city. However, because of time spent cleaning up beaches and mangroves alongside non-Christians, and kayaking for hours on the water, and snorkeling or scuba diving to see God's beautiful underwater handiwork among coral reefs, those people who never would come to know Jesus, now DO know Jesus and follow Him.

Time spent with people is never a waste, and time spent with people while restoring God's creation breaks down boundaries so they can see Jesus in us, and see that we care about this world--God's world.

And that's why Creation Care matters to God, and why it should be an inherent, natural outworking of our faith.