The Fullness of Life
Renewing the face of the earth
Life needs beauty and order. It needs renewal, restructuring and bringing things into order. For God is not a god of confusion and chaos, but of peace and order, beauty and perfection. In His infinite wisdom He imparts grace, beauty, order and perfection to the marks of His hand. In the Genesis account of Creation we read: "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (1:30). Life - our personal life - should pattern itself after the Divine Model.
Everything, originally, has been created good. Man, unfortunately, in his sinful condition, has marred the beauty of God's work. As sons and daughters of God, Christians must help restore that beauty and order which God has originally brought into being.
To serve as a "leaven" that brings renewal into the world - which is to restore the beauty, order and integrity of Creation - is the mission for every responsible Christian. But this mission of renewal in the world should begin with renewal within oneself.
Our Lord reminds us to be worthy of that divine adoption as children of God when He said, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father's perfect." And this reminder serves also as a challenge for us to strive for that spiritual transformation and self-renewal. Only with this personal spiritual renewal can there also be a renewal and transformation in the world's social and material structures.
We cannot deny that the destruction of our forest, pollution of our rivers, lakes and seas, and countless other ecological problems which stem from the wanton exploitation of earth's resources, can be traced back to the roots of evil that are deeply embedded in the human heart. And God alone, in His grace and mercy, can eradicate these. Thus, our very effort towards spiritual self-renewal and openness to the inbreaking of divine grace can bring about not only social order and transformation but also a restoration of the beauty and order which Nature has from the beginning.
The occurrence of droughts, floods, famines, pollution which seem to afflict our world with greater intensity are our own making. The deliverance from these things, too, can come from us if we should choose to cooperate with the Divine Maker who alone knows how things should be managed.
When Moses proclaimed the commandments of God to the chosen people, he said; "I set before you, this day, a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you obey the commandments; a curse if you disobey them" (Deut. 11:26-28). The same offers are set before us in our time. Choose: a blessing or a curse.
- How manifold are your works, O Lord!
- In wisdom you have wrought them all--
- the earth is full of your creatures;
- the sea also, great and wide,
- in which are schools without number
- of living things both small and great...
- They all look to you to give them food in due time.
- When you give it to them, they gather it;
- When you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
- If you hide your face, they are dismayed;
- If you take away their breath, they perish
- and return to their dust.
- When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
- and you renew the face of the earth.
- Ps. 104:24-30