He’s Got The Whole World…In His Hands!

“The world is not my home…I’m just passing through.” So sang Larry Norman to millions of “Jesus Movement” Christians in the 1970s.  I was one of them!

I loved it and the line re-enforced the theology I had grown up with;  essentially Earth was temporal and was destined for destruction.  Things are going to get worse and worse before the end so don’t get to comfortable… because we’re going someplace else.  And not to worry,  as Christians we had been provided life rafts before this world goes down and, unlike the Titanic, Christ’s love had created a life raft big enough for anyone who chooses to climb in.

But what if the Earth was our home?  What if we treated it like our own house rather than the hotel room where we leave dirty towels on the bathroom floor?  What if we saw our world as something groaning to be restored rather than consigned for destruction?  When did the wonderful blessing and responsibility to the Earth given to us by God suddenly end?

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”