Green (Skipping Rocks #5)

           Green is my favorite color.  When my daughter and I take our walks around the property, especially around the stream and pond, we love the green.  Green grass, green trees, green shrubs and even some green bugs.  I even like it as a sentiment when sung by Kermit the Frog, but I don’t want it as a defining label.  You may think this is because we don’t love the environment or don’t want to be thought of as tree huggers. Not so. 

          For me, it is not that being green is too much, instead it is too little.  Over the years the labels have changed – eco-friendly, environmentally responsible, tree hugger, green – and they have fallen short in their understanding of our relationship to the physical world.  They have placed the care and condition of the natural world on par, or even above, humanity.  When my daughter and I are on our adventures, my goal is to teach her an attitude of worship toward the creator rather than the creation. 

          So we are all for recycling, renewable energy and taking care of the environment, but not as an end in themselves.  It isn’t about money, power or politics.  We just want to show our love, respect and gratitude while we walk in someone else’s yard.  He has given us such an amazing and beautiful world and it is ours to watch over.  Sadly, when the topic of the environment comes up, our anger and sadness is focused on a forest or the species of the day rather than the one who gave them life and being. 

          Let’s imagine an artist putting together a painting unlike any other he has created.  Instead of hanging this painting in a museum where admission is limited, he displays it to everyone with the understanding that they must take care of it and that he will leave it with them as long as they live.  If people then mistreat the painting, who has been wronged; the painting, the population or the artist?  The various movements that have taken place over the years would have you believe that the painting should win that argument, or at least the population, and don’t even think the artist exists.  I believe it is the artist who deserves our sympathies. 

          I want a world with clean water, clear skies and teaming with life.  I want my daughter to be responsible and thoughtful about the world around her.  I want her to live a life marked by gratefulness toward God and consideration toward others.  I want her to be moved by the beauty of what has been made, and understand that she has been beautifully made.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to see the kind of world it could be if everyone did the same?