During this week, we will celebrate the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day on April 22. When Senator Gaylord Nelson first proposed the idea of an Earth Day, he was ridiculed by some politicians, but thanks to a group of young activists, the idea caught on even during this terrible time. The war in Vietnam was still raging, New Haven police charged Bobby Seale with murder, and four students were killed at Kent State on May 4.
But Earth Day survived the year and has become both an annual celebration and a key commitment to act boldly, innovate broadly, and implement just environmental policies equitably. God gave us this earth to serve as stewards, not destroyers.
In my own little part of God’s world, I can hear birds chirping loudly in the early morning and I realize that the birdhouse I talked my son into nailing on the old pine tree now has a resident family. Just as the Risen Lord appeared to Cleopas in the breaking of bread, so he also appears in the new lives to come from a small birdhouse.
Prayer for the Day
You embrace us, O God, through the beauty of the earth around,
Binding us together in awe of your creation;
Teach us, we pray, how best to care for the lives we impact
From the worms that aerate our soil to the whales of the sea.
Grant that we listen to the sounds of the world you created,
So we are better stewards of your gracious gifts.
In the name of the One who points the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The earth is what we all have in common
- Wendell Berry, poet, writer
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.
- Jane Goodall
May God grant me to speak with judgment,
and to have thoughts worthy of what I have received,
for God is the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise.
For both we and our words are in God’s hand
Wisdom of Solomon 8: 15-16