By Ife J. Ibitayo
For Part 1, “Let There Be Light”, click here.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26).
I never used to recycle. I saw it as a nuisance at best and a hassle at worst. I had more important tasks to complete than tediously separating out the cardboard boxes from the steady stream of trash I generate. But one day, I felt divinely convicted about my disregard for recycling. Yes, divinely convicted. Let me explain.
God’s Rule
It shouldn’t be very shocking that the God who created the world cares about it too. In the book of Job, God rhetorically asks, “‘Who makes the rain fall on barren land, in a desert where no one lives? Who sends rain to satisfy the parched ground and make the tender grass spring up…Who provides the raven’s food when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food’” (Job 38:26-27, 41)?
God is the ultimate gardener and zookeeper of the vivarium we call earth. He is in charge of the ecosystems we know and love on our planet. But He has graciously ceded a tremendous deal of control to us humans. He made us in His image, and one key aspect of that image is God’s dominion—His rule and reign.
Our Rule
When we hear the term “rule”, our minds often go to bad examples of rulership we’ve witnessed in our lives—bad parents, professors, or presidents. Or we may think of dictatorships like the Galactic Empire of Star Wars or the Third Reich. But the Hebrew word radah, much like its English counterpart “reign”, is a morally neutral term. It simply refers to power and authority one possesses over others. And this power and authority can be used to profit one’s subordinates or profiteer off of them.
As the rulers of earth, we’ve done a tremendous deal of profiteering. We’ve increased the rate of species extinction by a factor of dozens or even hundreds. We’ve decimated a third of the earth’s forests. And we’ve polluted nearly half of the rivers and lakes here in the United States. That barrage of facts only scratches the surface of the potentially irreparable damage we’ve done to our planet.
Conclusion
There are many who’ll read this article and roll their eyes, dismissing it as liberal, left-wing propaganda. But that’s exactly the problem, good stewardship of the world we’ve been given is everyone’s problem. It’s not a political topic but a heart issue. And this is why I began to recycle. I need to care as much about this planet as God does. And caring begins with the little things like conserving water, not wasting food, and even tossing my empty Coke can into the right trashcan.
“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
(Psalm 24:1)