Taking care of creation or being green can have some pretty weighty implications as well as debatable issues that get people all emotional. But from a novel by Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams, came a metaphor that is simple enough to be easily understood. Probably for that reason it appeals to me and yet is a real challenge.
It is simply this, that we have been invited to spend some time on this earth that we don't own. The Host has instructed us as guests to feel at home, use what's here, enjoy all the benefits, hopes that we will be comfortable and stay a long time. We have been told that we should take care of things since there are other guests that will also be coming .
This sojourn as a house guest deserves a note to the Host as one would leave on the kitchen table of a home where we had a pleasant stay. Mine might read like this: "Thanks for letting me sleep on your couch. I loved the view. The furnishings fit me just right. The food I found in the fridge was delicious. I'm sorry I broke a coffee mug--I hope it isn't irreplacable. I tried to put everything back the way I found it. You truly did make this a 'good' place. I can understand why you love it."
I'm grateful to Kingsolver for this perspective that brings my status as a guest to a most personal level.
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ahhh, so true - Kingsolver says it so well and she makes you want to leave it better than you found it. I love Kingsolver and this book. i just found it at a garage sale :) i may just have to start it up again.
ReplyDeleteAn apt idea that helps me understand.
ReplyDeleteEmily and I lived among American Indians for a time. I liked their way of looking at stewardship. They didn't hand off the world to the next generation, they borrowed it from them.
Caring for the earth, then, turns out to be an act of love for the Creator and one's own.