Day 1 – Issue 17

Be Still Know

Psalm 24:1 NLT

‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.’

Over the years we have offered generous amounts of hospitality. We love to entertain and my own enjoyment of cooking needs an appreciative crowd to enjoy it. Cooking for oneself is never quite as fun, apart from being able to eat all one’s own favourites. Of course, we have also been the recipients of excellent hospitality as guests. We always seek to respect and honour our hosts with a gift on arrival, and exhibiting great gratitude for their warm welcome.

It is perhaps unusual to consider ourselves as God’s guests here in the earth. It’s challenging to think in terms of living within someone else’s home throughout our lifespan here. However, this earth, and everything in it, remains God’s gift. When I first recognised this it began to change the way I looked at the world. While I might freely rearrange the fixtures and fittings in my home, it would appear somewhat bizarre behaviour while in a friend’s home. Yet all too easily I treat God’s gift, all of creation, as if it were my own, with little or no thought of my host.

Often we can forget ourselves and enjoy all that surrounds us – the beauty as well as the fruits of the earth. The Jews were continually reminded that the earth was the provision of God for their welfare, and made regular sacrifice from the fruit of the earth to God. Once Jesus ended the need for sacrifice through his own death upon the cross, it is easy to forget how thankful we are to be for the fullness of provision that is ours because of God.

I’ve had to learn to appreciate creation for its own sake. I was looking to my own advantage, which flies in the face of St Paul’s challenge, that we each look to the advantage of others above our own (see Philippians 2:3-4). This is tough medicine to swallow, especially in a self-centred social context in which forgetting our host we behave as we choose, forgetting that our host will return and hold us responsible for our actions.

QUESTION: How will God review your treatment of the earth on his return?

PRAYER: Creator God, you made all things and saw that they were good. Help me respect what you have made.