Authentic
STEWAR DSHIP
A
s a child I always loved animals. After begging my parents for a furry friend, my father purchased me a number of rabbits. I even named one after the Bible character Ruth. I remember holding them, caring for them, playing with them, and watching them run around and enjoy life. I loved to care for the little creatures I had come to acquire. Animals were a source of great joy and enchantment to me and continue to be to this day. Gardening was another of my childhood delights. As a young child, I loved helping my mom and dad plant the garden, weed it and water it. One year I even grew a 50-pound pumpkin. I was extremely proud of that accomplishment. To this day, I enjoy getting dirt on my hands. It is a magical experience to put work in early in the spring and watch the garden grow. There is something so rewarding about nurturing flora and fauna. What is it about animals that inspires profound love AUTHOR Natashia McVay in our hearts? Why do we experience sadness in the fall when our prize pumpkin plant withers and dies? I believe the Author of Life created within humanity the deep desire to care for and minister to our environment. We are created in His image. Coded within our DNA is a directive to nurture, cultivate and encourage. We were created to inhabit the earth, to be fruitful and multiply. We were also created to 58
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steward the earth and everything on it. Genesis 1:28 says, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (ESV). For some this passage has been used to justify a pillage and plunder methodology — a slash and burn approach. I argue this passage contains no license or authorization to exert dominance or exploitation. Rather, it describes humanity’s mandate to exercise stewardship over the earth on behalf of our Lord and our God. The Andrews Study Bible describes the concept this way: “Human stewardship is
