Spring is upon us, and with the turn of seasons one cannot help but reflect on the beauty of nature.  No, Augusta has no mountains, no prairies, no deserts, no sea – but it has a river, a swamp, and plenty of wonderful hardwood forests.  With the advent of blooming flowers, chirping birds in the morning, and the pagan celebration of what is called “Earth Day”, I would like to redeem the love and care of creation for Jesus Christ.

Science has informed us that the earth is dying.  We are exhausting its natural resources faster than they can be replenished.  The ice caps are melting.  In America we consume over 25% of the earth’s resources, though we only make up only 5% of the earth’s peoples.  Waste is piling up – buried and smoking in landfills and under homes, floating in the oceans.  Last summer at the beach I noticed the large amount of plastic drink bottles that washed up ashore.

The people of earth have, as of late, been diligent to raise awareness of these problems.  Al Gore is famous for his movie.  Recycling is promoted almost everywhere, even in little Augusta GA, at least in some counties.  These are good things. 

But I ask:  In the name of what?  Mother Nature?  Earth Day?  Bill Mallonee says “…babies are torn ’cause nobody wants them, whales canonized by some government program…”  In all the rush and hustle to save the earth, the world has very much embraced a New Age humanistic paradigm while leaving the true God out of creation and it’s care.  While there is great benefit in some of these humanitarian efforts, I think they fall short of a much greater purpose for our reverence and care for the creation.  And that is that creation has everything to do with God’s beauty, God’s personality, and God’ s people.

Look up!  Look up in the day and in the night!  Now, RIGHT NOW, creation is speaking of His wonder!  Psalm 19 says that the heavens ARE telling of God’s glory, the work of His artistic hands.  Every day the earth POURS FORTH speech!  Can you hear it?  Hush and listen!  Turn off your cell phone, switch off your e-mail notification,  shut your facebook.  Creation is yelling!  Every night it reveals his knowledge.  There is NO PLACE it is not heard.  The Old Testament prophets and poetry are replete with the testimonies of creation:  the hills rejoice, the trees clap their hands.  The colors and sounds and smells all declare that God is wonder.  And in the New Testament Jesus says that if man did not praise Him, the rocks would sing!

In the early 1800s the pen of Robert Grant wrote what the lips of many a pew warmer would later sing:

“Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain!”

As believers in Christ, we are called to notice and reverence God and His creation.  How does a Christian celebrate Earth Day?  By remembering Jesus God the Creator.  Another hymn says “He shines in all that’s fair“.  Every day is a day of praise and gratitude as we join in the colors, the smells, the sounds of creation and worship God just for today.

As a church, in a practical effort to redeem creation care, we have recently undertaken recycling at VCC.  Plastics, glass, metal, paper, ink cartridges are brought on Sundays by congregation members who live in counties that do not offer recycling, and are then taken to recyling centers that properly assimilate each material.  It is a small way for our church to serve our community, to steward the Earth that God has given us, and to greater reverence His majesty that is declared all around us.