Earth Day

We grow up hearing in church that this whole planet is due for explosive destruction and we buy into it. One more failure to grasp the character of metaphor in scripture. A new heaven and a new earth are symbols of a renewed earth, of God accomplishing his mission of reconciliation begun in His Son.

I still remember the dismissive silliness of the rapture ready saints wanting to kiss of the third planet from the sun like some kind of wasted experiment, longing for streets of gold, another metaphor by the way.

The created universe is God's handiwork. One of our missionaries shared a story of a tribal man seeing the ocean for the first time and becoming almost giddy and acting drunk at see so far an expanse. His jungle world and jungle mind was expanded by the beauty of the vast ocean.

For the beauty of the earth, and the sky, accept O Lord my humble praise.