Weekly Celebrations, Actions and Meditations
To Promote Earth Stewardship
Week 6: April 27- May 3: “Let the land produce living creatures …[and] [l]et us make man in our image…and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:24-26, NIV).
Focus on God’s creation of land animals. In the KJV, man is told to “have dominion” over the earth. Ruling, or having dominion, over subjects does not excuse indifference to their suffering. Focus this week on the joy that land animals bring us and on ways that you can convince others to treat animals with dignity, respect and loving care. Even when we kill them, it should be done in a humane way.
More Commentary on the Sixth Day: Humans
|
Celebration · Watch Animal Planet if you didn’t last week and see the wonder and intricacies of life on this planet. · Look through a microscope (available at most toy stores) at something small, preferably a living thing. Visit the Invertebrate House at the zoo or the Science Center in Baltimore to see our microscopic world. · Spend a whole afternoon at the zoo. · Watch the squirrels. · Watch children play. · Visit a farm and watch the baby animals run out of the stalls when released into the pastures for spring grazing – they define joy! · Hike to Great Falls and watch the kayakers play.
Photo: Pandas in Chengdu, China
|
 |
Action
· Contribute 0.7% of your income to the Millennium Development Goals to help the people who have the least. Goal 7 provides for Environmental Sustainability to help alleviate environmental degradation and associated problems that affect the poorest of the poor.
· Pray for wisdom to know how to live in the light of so much inequity.
· Go meat free for a day/week/month and reflect on the killing of animals for food. Make sure any meat you eat is raised and slaughtered humanely.
· Buy only cage-free poultry products.
· Spend extra time with your pet. Try to understand your pet’s language rather than always expecting your pet to understand your language.
· Give thanks for wonderful blessings and pray for others not as fortunate.
· Smile at a child that is of a different race or culture and make your smile convey warmth and acceptance.
· Help a needy child locally.
· Help needy children globally.
· Think about the world’s population and how we can slow our population growth and share resources more fairly so that there is plenty for all.
· Ponder how we can help animals that get pushed out of their habitat.
Meditation
Think prayerfully about how we are using up our resources at an unsustainable rate and what this means for future generations. Reflect on the fact that the richest 20 percent of the world’s population consume 80 percent of its resource while the remaining 80 percent of people have to make do with the remaining 20 percent.
More Commentary on the Sixth Day: Humans