Grains of Sand

“ The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it ” —Psalm 24:1, NIV. Love it all, care for it all, respect it all, admire it all, appreciate it all, because it all belongs to Him. Love them all, care for them all, respect them all, admire them all, appreciate them all, because they all belong to Him. At times our vision gets clouded by the obvious, what we see—and perhaps dislike—at first glance.. But when we look "behind the scenes" so to speak, and realize the Source of all that we see, our perspective and our attitude may need to change.

“ Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours ” —1 Chronicles 29:11, NIV When man took his first step, he was charged by God with the responsibility to look after all that God had created. Genesis 2:15 tells us: “ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it ” (NIV). By the time we get to Paul’s letter to the Romans we realize the effect that sin has had, not only on mankind, but on the creation that God entrusted to him. Paul writes: “ The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth r...

I'm not sure how much styrofoam I've used in my lifetime. To tell the truth I don't want to know because I'm sure I would be thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed. I suppose it was the recent horrendous oil spill in the Gulf that triggered an acute sense of concern for the world that God intended for me to take care of. That's why styrofoam has grown sharp fangs and bad breath and demands that I remove its ugly puss from my sight. Recently I discovered a treasure-trove of new china stashed away under the staircase that leads to the fire exit in our church. Apparently no one has used the dishes because no one wants to wash them. Instead we help to flood the landfills with styrofoam cups and plates that won't biodegrade in our lifetime—perhaps not even in the lifetime of our children. This morning I was reading part of the story of Hezekiah from 2 Kings. After the king had been granted fifteen extra years of life (that turned out to be a REALLY bad idea), Hezekia...