Take care of it

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/885/earth-from-space

Earth Day 1970
Earth Day 2020

Bitter Water Made Sweet

I am the vine, you are the branches. (John 15:5a)

 

Again and again the words in the Bible encourage its listeners and its readers to put their trust only in God and they will receive life.

In the Exodus story as the people fleeing bondage are being forged (unbeknownst to them) into the core of a new people, they get this message again and again - the hard way.

There they are in the wilderness newly escaped from the chariots of Pharaoh and all they can think about is their immediate need: water.

Well, yeah.

Again and again though God provides for them as in the Exodus story, as at the waters of Marah - bitter water turned sweet. 

I wonder. 

Is this how it is?

Is there any other source of nourishment, of life, of provision for life's necessities, besides God?

Oh.

Earth Day brings it home to us. Sometimes I have paraphrased God's message to the primordial Human Being, Adam, in Genesis, as "Take care of it - don't wreck it!"

50 years ago today we the members of the Carlmont High School Sierra Club along with our fellow students walked to school. Not the only time I'd done that, but this time with a purpose: to remind ourselves and those around us of our dependence on nature to survive, and our need to care for the earth to thrive - and more than that it was our responsibility.

Not just for a reward. It's common sense. And our job.

At least Adam thought so.

 * * *

As usual I take the opportunity of the anniversary of Earth Day to express my gratitude for the organizers of the Carlmont High School Sierra Club - including Stan Fishburn and Paul W. (Bill) Leech; the organizer, Paul deFalco, regional director of the US Federal Water Pollution Control Administration (FWPCA), of the New Year's Eve 1968 conference in Oakland Civic Auditorium about clean water, clean air, and the environment, and the Ecology Action people there present (perhaps including Bill and Betsy Bruneau of St Francis in the Woods Willits). The high school Sierra Club encouraged our fellow students to join us and walk to school that day... and take some extended hikes through the local mountains and forests, which further raised awareness of our natural environment.