Today’s Scripture Reading (March 7,
2015): 2 Peter 3
The north
eastern coastline of the United States and Canada has suffered through a hard
winter. Massive amounts of snow have fallen on the West side of the Atlantic
Ocean, and the temperature has stayed well below freezing for long stretches of
time. At about this time of the year, eastern people are beginning to pray for
global warming.
But we don’t
talk about global warming anymore. And there is a reason why the terminology
has changed from warming to climate change. Global warming brings with it the
idea that the whole world will get warmer more or less in a uniform way. In the
part of the world where I live, that kind of warming has some attractions to
it. I would love to experience milder winters and hotter summers, although on
the latter I realize that I am in the minority. But in my area of the world,
temperature rarely gets up to the 90’s on the Fahrenheit scale (only a handful
of days over 30 Celsius). And the fewer days we reach into the -30’s during the
winter, well that has to be a positive.
Unfortunately,
global warming or climate change doesn’t work that way. And for some scientists,
this is the explanation for the bitter eastern winter. They argue that the
warming of the arctic has caused a slowing of the jet stream that flows high
above the North American eastern coast, and this slowing has allowed more cold
air to reach farther down the eastern coastline of North America than is
usually possible. If this is true, and science fiction writers have been
arguing this exact scenario for a couple of decades, then maybe it is time to
realize how fragile this blue planet of ours really is – and not only that, but
how interconnected it is. This can no longer be consigned to the possible
effects of climate change on the planet. This is now actually happening. And what
we do next does not just effect us, it effects people that we don’t even know
around the world. The environmental decisions that we make are long reaching
both in space and in time. And God has given to us the key to controlling that
aspect of our future – the only thing left is for us to become wise enough to
use the key.
Peter
understood this fragile nature of the world in which he lived. His
understanding of the world was that it was a three tiered universe. And on the
top of this universe – above the lights that were placed in the sky, was water.
The ancients believed this because the water on earth and the water in the sky
were both blue during the day and dark at night. So water was on top. The next
region was the living place of humankind. It was a fragile place in between the
water that was above, and the water below. And God had gathered together that
water that was below into pools so that dry land appeared on which the human
race could live and grow. But the water gathered below, and the water gathered
above were being held back by the very will of God. At any moment he could
decide to stop protecting this fragile place that we inhabit and the water
would come crashing back. And this was exactly what happened during the great
deluge – during the days of Noah. God stopped holding the water back.
And God
might be doing the same thing today. Oh, we understand that it is not water
that is above, but our planet is no less fragile than the one that Peter
believed existed. And right now it is in trouble. And we have a choice. We can
continue to ask God to hold back the deluge that we call climate change, or we
can live up to the job description that God gave to every member of our race
and truly become the protectors of this planet. Personally, I think God is in
heaven cheering on the second option, but if that is to happen, it is going to
take a real change in the way that we live on behalf of all of us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jude 1
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