Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, Disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant. Therefore a curse, like a cancer, ravages the earth. Its people pay the price of their sacrilege. Isaiah 24:5-6 (MSG)
A few years ago I went to see an exhibition of Iowa artists. I ran across a simple landscape of a cornfield drawn with pastels. I was surprised by the emotional reaction I had to the picture, and how beautiful it was to me. I'm sure a lot of people looked at it and muttered, "It's just a stupid cornfield."
That experience of standing in front of that beautiful pastel taught me a lot about who I am. Though raised in the city, I am a child of Iowa. I've never been a farmer. I have a "brown thumb." Yet, my life has been framed by the never ending cyclical seasons of tilling, planting, weeding, detasseling, and harvesting. I have a real appreciation for agriculture. It's all around me. It's part of who I am.
Today, I'm reminded that man's first home on Earth was a garden, and the first occupation given to man was that of a gardener. Our responsibility to care for God's creation goes back to Adam and Eve, and I don't believe that responsibility was ever taken from us. When we ignore our responsiblity to the Earth, we pay the price for it.
5ff Earth is polluted by its very own people,
who have broken its laws,
Disrupted its order,
violated the sacred and eternal covenant.
Today I think of an earth polluted not only physically but also spiritually. One wonders why God wouldn’t choose to purge the earth a bit more often of its ugliness. I also think of the garden, the first experience on earth and how beautiful it must have been. Man, have we messed that up.