I caught a glimpse of Mt. Baker the other day, as I was driving. Actually it was pretty hard to miss, as it seemed so grand, so close.
Mt. Baker is my ever changing constant on my drive to work, my walk around my neighbourhood, any place that takes me East or South of where I live. Depending on the weather, the season, the cloud cover or so many other variables, it is never the same, from one day to the next.
Yet it is always there, even when my view is obstructed. It is an ever-changing constant.
Ever-changing constant …
a bit like an oxymoron, yet that is what describes Baker, it is also what describes the world we live in, from ecosystems to world events to the very breathing of every living thing.
We, as humans have been tasked with the job of caring for our world and everything in it. That is an enormous task … one that we have frequently failed miserably at achieving.
As I walked down a new trail with the Wonderdog yesterday, I was profoundly struck with thankfulness for all that was around me. The trees bending with the breeze, and shading my path. The flowers and plants that add color, variety. Speaking of colors, the shades and varieties of the color green in the leaves of the trees, shrubs, the grass and smaller plants was amazing. Then we paused as I heard water running through a brook beyond my sight. The feel of breeze on my damp brow. The clear blue sky.
So much to be thankful for!
This morning, while enjoying this walk, I thought how I would struggle to be as thankful in January, when the downpours are a constant. The trees would have no leaves, the ground would be saturated soil, the sky grey with low clouds.
Ever-changing constant.
We watch or listen to the news in our little corner, or around the globe. People, creatures our very earth suffering. This is our father’s world … and it can seem as though we are destroying it, destroying each other.
At lunch the other day we sat and heard refuge stories, from a successful young couple who were so young when they fled with their families to a safe place that their stories are constructed, not from what they remember but from what they have been told.
Ever-changing constant.
We are still responsible for our world, and all that is in it. Though, I struggle to see that God ever intended that humans would rule over each other when, in Genesis 1:26:
“God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Sin is constant … but God is constant, as well.
Our world is always changing. Like any living thing, it breaths and grows, increases and decreases, moves and is still. We are to be earth-keepers, protectors. But we and our world’s existence are marred by sin, making perfect function impossible.
But, this world was designed and created by one who knows what it is supposed to look like, function like, without the damage sin brings to people and other living things.
He is still on the throne … but we are not off the hook.
This is my father’s world
Oh, let me never forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet
itsawonderfilledlife 