Gratitude on Earth Day

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled Gratitude on Earth Day, was written by Lisa M. Samra. Earth Day is an annual event observed on April 22.

In recent years, more than one billion people in about two hundred countries have taken part in educational and service activities. Each year, Earth Day is a reminder of the importance of caring for our amazing planet. But the mandate to care for the environment is far older than this annual event. It goes all the way back to creation. In Genesis, we learn that God created the entire universe and formed the Earth as a place for humans to dwell. Not only did He fashion the mountain peaks and lush plains, God also created the Garden of Eden, a beautiful place providing food, shelter, and beauty for its inhabitants. After breathing life into His most important creation, humans, God placed them in this garden and gave them the responsibility to work it and take care of it. After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, caring for God's creation became more difficult. But to this day, God Himself cares for our planet and its creatures and asks us to do the same. Whether we live in crowded cities or rural areas, we all have ways we can care for the areas God has entrusted to us. And as we tend the Earth, may it be an active gratitude to Him for this beautiful planet.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 2 verses 4 through 10 and verse 15. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no one to work the ground.

But streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there He put the man He had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden.

From there it was separated into four headwaters. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Let's pray. Creator God, You've entrusted to us a marvelous planet that sustains and astonishes us. Please help us to respond to Your gift by caring for it as a way to express thankfulness for Your provision. Thank You, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Toni Collier and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.