Care of Creation - 1 - Why Care?

This week we will be starting a new series called ‘Care of Creation’ we will be looking at why we should care about our world, and some practical ways that we can start caring for the creation that God prepared for us.

Right at the very front of your Bibles, in Genesis, we see that God is the creator of the universe and everything within it. What’s more we see that God looks at his creation and he observes that what he has made was ‘very good’.

In Colossians, as we are about to read, the Earth is much more than just a rock hurtling at millions of miles an hour around the sun. It is a unique creation created by God and through his son Jesus to form to be part of his kingdom forever.

Let’s take a look at Colossians 1 : 15 - 23.

We see there that creation isn’t simply an event where God created the universe and then left it to its own devices we see that God, and his son Jesus remain actively interested in creation, and continue to play an active part in its ongoing health and stability.

Take a look at verse 16, here we see that everything has been created ‘through him and for him’. Here we see that we and all of his creation exist for his pleasure and for his glory. Knowing that how does that make you feel?

So you might be thinking “that’s all very well, but what has that got to do with me?” or maybe “my life doesn’t harm creation, after all I don’t go around punching penguins or setting fire to forests”.

However, as we are about to see in a short cartoon that we are going to watch together, through our everyday decisions each one of our lives can have a big impact on creation.

Hopefully after watching that clip it has got you thinking about the impact that we all have on our world. Can you think of some of the things that we do, or that we buy or support that have a harmful impact on God’s creation?

I would suggest that one of the biggest reasons why humanity has moved so far from caring for creation in the way that God intended is because as a society Jesus is being pushed out of the picture. We see in Colossians 1 : 17 it says “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

It has always been God’s intention that his son Jesus would hold creation together so that all aspects of creation, such as humanity, the Earth’s resources, the climate and the animals would work together through him.

As we see in our world today, without Jesus holding the various areas of our world together we start to get the fractured and hurting planet that we see today. Where the most vulnerable parts of creation are exploited by humanity.

How does this make you feel, how do you think we as Christians can allow Jesus to take centre stage in creation?

One way in which this broken relationship with creation is displaying itself is through climate change.

The last thing that I want to focus on today is that although the brokenness of creation may seem negative, there is a positive outcome for it.

As we see in Colossians 1 : 21 – 22 Jesus’s death and resurrection on the cross he has provided us with a way to restore our relationship with God despite the bad decisions and brokenness we have in our lives and in our world.

We have the opportunity now to turn away from our decisions and our actions that hurt creation, pollute our world and exploit its many resources placed here by God. Jesus’ actions allow us to be forgiven for our actions of the past, and our actions in the future as we try and be obedient to him and honour his creation to the best of our abilities.

Next week we will be spending some time focusing on practical ways that we can care for creation but for now let’s close in prayer.