The Bible be­gins with God fash­ion­ing a world from dark­ness and dis­or­der. The last book, Rev­e­la­tion, ends with the riv­er of the wa­ter of life, leaves of heal­ing, the ab­sence of night, and the need no more of lamp or sun, "for the Lord God will be their light." (Rev­e­la­tion Ch 22 v 1-6). In Gen­e­sis the first words of the Cre­ator were, "Let there be light "and the cul­mi­na­tion of cre­ation was, "Let us make hu­man be­ings in our im­age, af­ter our like­ness." (Gen­e­sis,Ch 1 v 3, 26 ) Hu­man be­ings were then giv­en the com­mand and priv­i­lege to fill, sub­due and have do­min­ion over all liv­ing things. The earth be­came home, our work­place and our home and our source of food.

The word do­min­ion does not mere­ly con­vey the idea of lord­ship and un­lim­it­ed con­trol. It has the im­pli­ca­tion of be­ing a stew­ard, a guardian, one re­spon­si­ble to the Giv­er and Mas­ter. This re­spon­si­bil­i­ty means en­sur­ing the earth is hab­it­able, fruit­ful, healthy and peace­ful. It is not a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty giv­en to a few na­tions and cul­tures but to "all peo­ple who on earth do dwell." In a sense, we are all gar­den­ers and labour­ers, sow­ing, fer­til­is­ing, and reap­ing with the hope that all of God's fam­i­ly will have enough.

Phys­i­cal du­ties–im­por­tant as spir­i­tu­al du­ties.

There is a temp­ta­tion among re­li­gious per­sons, to think that our chief con­cern should be the de­vel­op­ment of the spir­it and pre­pare our­selves for the bliss of heav­en af­ter this life, with no se­ri­ous think­ing of our du­ties to­wards this phys­i­cal earth. How­ev­er, be­liev­ers in Christ must keep in mind Chris­tian­i­ty is a faith in which "The Word be­came flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glo­ry..."(John l v l4 ). God is with us and among us as we per­form our earth­ly tasks, the tasks that will demon­strate how much we care for oth­ers and for our earth­ly dwelling-place. Je­sus had harsh words for those who over­looked the hurts, tears and groans of the dis­tressed. He con­demned self­ish­ness shown in those whose plea­sures and trea­sures kept them in­sen­si­tive to the ba­sic needs of their fel­low in­hab­i­tants.

If we com­pare the earth to a hu­man body, we re­alise the body can­not be con­sid­ered healthy if some parts are sick or dis­eased. Our earth is suf­fer­ing from the con­se­quences of for­est dev­as­ta­tion, wa­ter and air pol­lu­tion, and tox­ic poi­son­ing. We are told that 20 per cent of hu­man be­ings pos­sess 80 per cent of the world's re­sources. Prob­lems of waste, obe­si­ty and over-con­sump­tion ex­ist along­side those of mal­nu­tri­tion, star­va­tion and en­vi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ters. Just as we lis­ten thought­ful­ly to the wis­dom of our re­li­gious teach­ers, who pro­claim and ex­plain Scrip­tures to us, so we must pay heed to the ex­perts who keep on re­mind­ing us the earth is the Lord's and the earth is our home. They are all telling us to care for what we have been giv­en, not for our sake on­ly, but for the sake of those who live at the fur­thest dis­tance from us and are af­fect­ed by our over-in­dul­gence, care­less­ness and ex­ploita­tion.

In the Psalms we read many vers­es of praise and thanks for the earth. "Be ex­alt­ed God above the heav­ens! Let your glo­ry be over all the earth."(Psalm 54 ) "Blessed be his glo­ri­ous name for­ev­er! May the whole earth be filled with his glo­ry!" (Psalm 72 ) "Yes the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its in­crease."(Psalm 85) "Let the heav­ens be glad, and let the earth re­joice; let the sea roar and all that fills it; let the field ex­ult and every­thing in it." (Psalm 96 ). God wants us to con­tin­ue mak­ing the earth a bet­ter home for gen­er­a­tions yet un­born. Let us main­tain "the in­tegri­ty of cre­ation."