My “Earthday” Post

First let me say, that we believe that everyday is the Lord’s, every breath, every movement, every thought ought to be taken captive unto our Lord Jesus Christ.

But someone determined that we ought to be calling certain days belonging to certain celebrations.  But no matter who or what we say we celebrate, whether it be St. Valentine, Columbus, Mothers or Fathers, or our personal birthday, all days belong to God.  All things are made by Him for Him.

Everyday we should thank him for our birth, for our mother and our father, for amazing men of courage that went before us or saints who grabbed hold of their faith full force amidst oppression and set us examples of living.

And everyday, not just today, we should recognize rightly what the earth is and our responsibility for it.

But today is tagged by someone somewhere that “today” is Earthday and instead of being cranky or ignoring it like I usually do, this time I will put down, pen to paper, (image to screen), what we, the Vicks, know of earth and our responsibility.

From the beginning, even before the fall, before weeds and pestilence, early and late blights, slugs, buttercup, thistle, even before all that and all that we perverted for our cause, and then the new “green movement”, we were never on equal footing with the plants and animals or to be under them, we the subservient, they the lords.  They were something else.  We were the only part of God’s creation, for he created all that exists, that was made in His image.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.  And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

And God blessed them.  And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Dominion is not a pejorative. 

Man is the one who has turned it so.  Man and woman together, twisted the words of their Creator, shortly after their creation, and ever since. 

Born out of our selfishness and self-preservation at the encouragement of evil, we swing wide one way and then in our own wisdom, which is no wisdom at all, we react and swing wide on another path the other way.  Missing God and His path the whole while.

Make no mistake, it isn’t the middle of the road we are to seek, not a balance between two ways of man, it is God’s road we are to walk entirely, wholeheartedly without reservation, no one foot over here and the other there.  We continually twist the words of God to what we believe is our good because we lack faith in God’s plan.  The plan that said:

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.  You shall have them for food.”

God has not left us on our own to “figure it out”.  Even after we turned from Him in the Garden, and before He sent His son to reconcile us, He taught.

And He still teaches, each one, in his own place, can learn if only we turn our ears to hear, train our minds to understand Him and not the greasy easy speak of the Evil One that speaks breathily with a false warmth into our ear to our selfishness and pride:

Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. 

When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?

Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?

When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?

Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.

Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;  caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick.

Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever.  The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain. 

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, whose plan is wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent.

Mistake free living? 

Not quite, not by any means.  But ultimately each must learn to listen and do.  Knowing full well in front of Whom we will all stand one day, at the time appointed for us, on our own witness.  It won’t be in front of Brother Bear or Sister Eagle or Master Carrot. It won’t be with the support of Monsanto nor Joel Salatin, it will be alone with Christ.

The one I will stand before is the Creator of all and everything.  It is to God I answer to.  And that is greater than answering to any one part of His creation.  I will have to answer to how I treated his gift of soil, his gift of accountability to my neighbor, the marvelous livestock, the birds of the air, the fish in the sea. 

I will have to answer to whether I listened to exhortation and admonishment to live for Him or if I caved and listened to godless poison for my own selfishness and ease.  And I’ll be answering without the aid of excuse, of, “they told me…”, “I was only given…,”  “I didn’t see…” “I got confused, I thought…” because ultimately God has said that He will tell each one. 

He is the one who tells me how to take care of His ranch, I am his ranch hand and the care of it comes to me. Not because he needs me, but because he has called me.  I have dominion, you have dominion, over that piece that that he has set for each one.

Because he is the one who made the world and everything in it.  Every day, every where.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,

having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that the should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for  “In him we live and move and have our being’

So fine, it’s Earth Day.  And so far as that means:

• A day to poignantly acknowledge the only true God, Creator of heaven and earth.
• A day to reflect on the fantastic gift that God has given into my care insofar as it is in my doing.
• A day to reflect on how I am doing on that score.

• A day to gather with like minded, God-fearing, God-hearing, folks to encourage and exhort one another to love and good deeds according to what God has given each one.

If today is that and not the worshiping of creation, setting it higher than the Creator or as the creator (how crazy a notion is that?)?  Then I say, have a pleasant Earth Day.