(The following is both a continuation of last week’s blog, and a Biblical reflection prompted by Earth Day.)
There is a view of life that says, as in the beloved gospel song, that this world is not my home. And though we might rightly say that my true home is with the Lord, this earth, within this cosmos, is my home, now, and in the future.
Genesis 1-2, describe us not as spirit beings brought down from a spirit world to live our lives as aliens until it is time to go back to our spirit home. We are part of creation, created from the very dust of earth. Yes, we are unique within creation. We bear our Maker’s image to represent Him in His cosmic Temple. His breath/Spirit made us so, yet still, this world is our true home.
Now, read the consequence of the fall.
Genesis 3:17“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.” (NIV)
These dreadful words were spoken to Adam. He and we were meant to live in harmony with God’s creation. We, however, along with creation, bear the consequences of our rebellion against the LORD we were to trust. Our fates are linked, but that also includes our futures.
In one of the greatest chapters Paul wrote, he affirms this very link:
Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Isaiah gives us a vision of a restored creation in the Messianic age, and it is delightful!
Isaiah 11:
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Until that time, we groan with creation and live where evil, predation, and disasters befall. Unless that Messianic age dawns soon, and we pray for that, we will die and be with the Lord, to await, with the great cloud of witnesses, the day of the risen Messiah. We will be raised with bodies like His, the fall reversed, and will walk in the cool of the evening with the Lord in His Temple forever.
Tim Kelley