I imagine your world, Lord, and feel so small.
We’ve messed it up, this beautiful world…just in my lifetime.
Like greedy, unappreciative children, we’ve ransacked your gifts…taking what suits us and throwing the rest away like worthless trash.
We’ve replaced the real things of life with imitations–
plastic homes,
plastic food made of artificial ingredients in a factory far from home,
plastic flowers in our outdoor pots,
plastic families living isolated lives…watching their personal TV alone.
We’ve polluted the water.
We’ve manipulated plants to have patents but no seeds.
We’ve killed off some animals to extinction and exploited others as if they cannot feel.
It must make you very sad, Lord, to see your beautiful gifts, so awesome and intricate,
scattered in disarray all over the world.
What can one person do to right the wrong that seems hopelessly out of control?
I will start today to clean up the mess…to put things back right.
I will work in the garden you have given me.
I will plant trees to replace asphalt.
I will treasure things made from loving hands.
I will see that my hands are always busy giving good to the world and not harm.
I will eat real food that is grown close to home.
I will take time to nurture and appreciate the beauty in nature.
I will tred softly upon this earth and not take advantage of any living thing.
I will take time for my family and friends and not confuse the virtual world with relationships.
I will make the world around me kinder, more lovely, more natural, more joyful than it was before.
I will need help, Lord, since there’s a lot I don’t know how to do.
But, I will do what I can,
and learn what I can,
and encourage others to do the same…bringing hope and healing to their own garden….
called home.
Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen to the third power.
Amen indeed. One of the things that I find tragic, and you touched on, is the loss of respect that a younger generation has for craftsmanship. Our kids see us buying a semi-handmade, handpainted bird house at the dollar store. When it falls out of the tree and breaks we throw it away and buy another one for a dollar. We wouldn’t think of repairing, repainting it…even the glue and nails involved would probably cost more than the new one we can go buy. The new one that was made by a slave and shipped 5500 miles to us so we could buy it for $1. Fix a hole in a tube sock? Ridiculous! Take time to learn how to knit, just so we can spend 30 hours making a blanket that cost us $40 in materials? Silly talk! Blankets are $5 at big box mart!
Why would I grow carrots when carrots also only cost $1 and they are FLAWLESS?
Because that is what I need to do.
Thanks, Jimmy, for your thoughtful comments. I especially like your last line…”because that’s what I need to do.” –Debbie