‘The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it!’ Psalm 24:1
Psalm 24:1 leaves no room for argument; everything in the earth belongs to God. The 270,000 square miles of degraded floating plastic that makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now part of the planet we call home. Rather than nurturing life it leads to the death of countless sea creatures.
The Earth belongs to the Lord but we are its stewards.
God invites us to share in shaping the land and sea-scapes of the planet. However, our impact can often be far from benign.
As Hosea writes, because of human sin ‘The land mourns... the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying’ (Hosea 4:3). Excessive packaging, careless disposal, poor policy and over consumption fill the oceans with our waste.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Stewards are meant to tend, nurture, bring out the best in a landscape and we can play our part. It starts with lament and repentance for our part in the spoiling.
But repentance is active.
Why not mark it with an act of stewardship – give up plastic for Lent – it won’t empty the Great Pacific Garbage Patch but it could mark a determination to treat this earth with the respect due to God’s precious possession.
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