“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live on it.” Psalm 24:1
As the techbros vie for lunar dominance and contemplate life on Mars, the earth bakes in record temperatures, the seas rise, the heat raises more and more aggression in the middle east and Africa, using oil as a bargaining chip, even as they blow up refineries, sending toxic rain from Ukraine to Vladivostok, from Tehran to Beirut and Abu Dhabi. Betting on the markets as the world burns. On the one hand, the earth seems to be a discarded plaything that we’re a little bored of. We kick it around and leave it abandoned at the bottom of the toy chest or behind the sofa. Tech has new things to play with – data centres blossom on our already polluted river banks, swans give way, only one cygnet this year? The water notches up another few degrees, as the industrial needs of AI and data take precedence over the beauty of creation. Soon, we’ll play in parks on Lunar City, go on holidays to Mars-a-lago. Who cares if we leave the blue planet black and brown?
The psalmist (King David perhaps) had a different focus when he wrote the lines at the top of this reflection three thousand years ago. It was a declaration that the earth is so special because God the creator cares for it, causes it to flourish, it is his garden, his paradisium. It’s an attitude to the world which we could learn a lot from. An attitude which calls us to cherish the earth, to care for the earth, to slow down and see the wonder of what God has created. The other day we were out gardening and a green beetle about the size of a 50p landed on my wife. It was iridescent, green-golden, with white flames down its back – a rose chafer. We wondered at it. Took pictures. Slowed our lives down for a moment. Gazed in awe. And when we eventually put it safely on the plant pot near us it scurried down into the soil to hide itself from us.
In the busyness of modern life, with all the pressures on so many of us, perhaps we can try to slow down for five minutes a day and reflect on the world around us. Its beauty, its resilience, its bounty. Perhaps as a reflection of our own needs to know how beautiful we are in God’s eyes, to know how much resilience he has built into our hearts and the potential for the world to meet our own needs. Since the techbros’ lunar mansions won’t have room for all of us, perhaps we could choose a better path: to re-make the world as a paradise for those of us who live here today. To make it a better place for our children to inhabit into the future…
“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live on it.” Psalm 24:1
Pete Phillips,
Minister at High St and St Mark’s Crescent Methodist Churches