“You are the Lord, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.  To all of them you give life.”  Nehemiah 9:6

“Worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”  Revelation 14:7

I feel fortunate to do some traveling and experience outdoors in various places.  Rocky Mountains and lush valleys, roaring oceans and babbling streams, dark forests and open prairies, and then … the wonders of my own backyard as the seasons change!  Praise God!  

I have read and heard too much about waste and landfills and “floating plastic islands”.  We have a tendency to acquire anything that appeals, lots of package with lots of stuffing.  What to do with it all?  To some, it is “my backyard” friendlier to simply send it away … to other states to bury, some say; to other countries others say, where it is piled in heaps where the poor might salvage scraps to use or sell; where it is dumped into lagoons, releasing chemicals and carcinogens into water and soil. 

If disposal is dangerous, it brings responsibility.  Delegated by God to have dominion over the earth, we have power to plunder and waste; or to care for and preserve.  You and I cannot build a safe recycling industry, but we can encourage the need.  Informed and aware, we can consider what we will need, use, and buy.  What will we do with it when it is no longer useful, or we simply become bored with it?  

“We are spending our children’s inheritance” we say in fun.  Wasting our children’s inheritance – the goodness of the earth, and its bounty – is global, and not funny.  We are responsible for what is left of the earth’s abundance, and its condition, for next generations, so they too can praise God.  

“For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the beauty of each hour, of the day and of the night, hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light; for the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight, for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight. Lord of all, to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise.”  Folliot S. Pierpoint  

Amen  

Verla Olson   

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