Imagine is the word. Imagine a world without war, without conflict, without rising seas and eroding beaches. Imagine a world where people have enough to eat because their farms and fields will not suffer from either drought or flooding rains. This is the world the young climate activists in Glasgow want us to not just imagine, but create.
This second week of COP26 is supposed to be the work week, the week that produces real measurable goals that countries will agree to but, the generation of now continues to threaten the generations of the future. Indonesia, for instance, has promised to curb deforestation as long as it does not interfere with development.
The United States isn’t much better. The Forest Service is part of the Agriculture Department, not the Interior Department which cares for our national parks and wildlife refuges. The Forest Service permits logging, mining, and drilling and its 30-year plan for “forest management” actually calls for increased destruction of our national forests in the name of development. It’s time to stop our deforestation activities so our grandchildren will have this treasure.
Prayer for the Day
Arching over our lives the magnificent trees bow to the wind,
For they know the wind is the breath of God stirring about them;
Fluttering in their boughs, the birds build their nests
In the hope that their hosts will stand another year.
May we hold fast to your creation, O God, in all its forms,
And protect its magnificence for the future.
In the name of the One who looked at the birds around him,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.
John Muir, American naturalist (1838-1914)
Forests are like churches, hallowed places. There's a stillness about them, a sort of reverence.
Sabrina Elkins, American novelist
Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you,
Which lives alone in a forest, in the midst of a garden land…
Micah 7: 14