Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! It’s Good Friday too, which I find to be a very appropriate coincidence. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to reflect on Christ’s death for the sake of the redemption of all creation? As Paul reminds us in Romans 18:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

Until that time comes, we focus on the work that God is already doing in the here and now to give us glimpses of the coming Kingdom. I can’t think of a much better way to reflect on the events of the first Good Friday than by celebrating His gift of creation (by gardening perhaps?) and doing our part to conserve and protect it.