CREATION

Every Christian believes that God made the universe, and God saw everything and found it was good. When God created the world, God's expectation was that Man must be benefited from it, and he should in return preserve it.

Garden as Shelter:

Modern man spends millions of money nowadays to build a shelter, (i.e.) to protect him from all harmful beings and objects. But when God made Man, it was entirely different.  Genesis: 2: 8 says, "And the Lord planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom He had formed." Further, God wanted to give pleasure to the newly created bing So out of the ground, God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis:2.9). There was even a river to water the garden.

Man as Protector:

God's call to human beings is visible in Genesis:2:15,  which says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of  Eden to till it and keep it. Working hard is necessary to enjoy the pleasures that Nature is endowed with." Man must depend on nature in order to live. God gives him Command over his surrounding, be animals, birds, and even other elements of nature. God gave Man whatever is needed for his survival.

Man as Corrupted Being:

When a man gets his wife, God finds wholeness in creation, and man's loneliness comes to an end. Their life meets with fall when the crafty serpent deceives the woman. Thereafter, sin enters the world.

God finally curses the humans as well as the serpent. God drives Man out of the garden and even guards the way to the tree of life. The man who was made in the image of God is now a fallen or corrupted being

God sends His only begotten Son to the world to save the sinners, who are in darkness. The situation of Christ’s birth is a strange one. The Israelites had no connection with God for 400 years, and Jesus came into the world. This is how God appears to the sinful world in the flesh. Later, Jesus is crucified and rose from the dead.

Today, the period before Jesus' crucifixion, exactly during Fall (Season), one can think about one's own flaws and fall. Modern man has failed in preserving the Creation. People have started destroying the natural elements. Humans are against others, as well as all other living and non-living things that are intended to be in harmony.

Water, the elixir of life has now been polluted to the core. Many water bodies are missing, and instead, skyscrapers are built for money in those places. Air too is impure nowadays. Recently, when human beings were locked down during the Pandemic, it was like nature recreating itself. The air was pure in most of the polluted cities and animals and birds were happily moving everywhere.

Reflection

Human beings are now facing an environmental crisis due to the mishandling of natural resources. It is the need of the hour that everyone turns to God and repents for all the crimes one did against God and the entire Universe. One should rethink the reason for the fall and reconcile with God. Let each one listen to God's call and preserve God's creation. So during this Lent, let us

“Fast from heavily Processed junk foods

Fast from eating meat which consumes much of the world’s resources

Fast from disposable coffee cups or water bottles by carrying your own

Fast from individual automobile use for any destination in easy walking or bicycling

Fast from apocalyptic environmental thinking and despair-focus instead on Good News. God creates. redeems, and sustains the Creation, and we are called to be responsible, awe-filled caretakers alongside God”.

Article by: N.P. Alex.