Abinish’s Struggle⤒🔗

She woke up at the first crow of the rooster early in the morning, while it was still dark. Shivering in the cold night of the desert, she got up and went out the door, grabbed her water container and joined her friends, already waiting at their neighbour’s hut. The girls started walking briskly while it was still cool, as they had a long march of 15 miles ahead of them to a rocky outcrop in the hills. Soon the sun would come out and it would be very hot. It would take them nearly the whole day to get to the well, draw a few lit­ers of water and walk back to their village. They stopped talking when the well came in sight. Approaching the cavern very carefully, the girls stayed hidden while they waited to see whether it would be safe enough to go inside. One of them threw a rock; it clattered noisily down the rock face to scare away any animal inside. They waited for several more minutes. With still no sound or movement from within, they decided to approach the well, draw the water and leave as soon as they were finished. They worked quickly while Abinish was on lookout duty outside, ready to alert the others of any danger. About a month ago, they had been attacked by marauding militiamen. Some of the girls were caught, severely beaten and raped. On that day they still managed to bring a little water home, but only the children got a cup of it.

Clan infighting was common, and the militiamen were a law to themselves. Usu­ally they had not been paid for months. Searching the area for food, they terrified the people in the villages and, in the open. Years of civil war and anarchy, had destroyed the irrigation canal systems, or these were in disrepair.

Abinish and her friends wrapped twisted pieces of cloth around their heads to make a kind of platform for the water containers to sit on. Steadying it with one hand and balancing it, they started the long walk back to their village. But things have changed now. The different clans and other tribal groups, on initiative of Unicode, have formed a committee for training on joint projects such as water supply and sanitation; how to operate and maintain irrigation plants, de-silting water reservoirs, etc. to ensure clean water and continuity of water supply. More importantly, they will rebuild inter-clan relationships and co-operate to reach set goals for the benefit of all concerned. Neighbours who have sat together to plan a project are less likely to turn to violence when problems arise.¹

One day Abinish noticed a huge drilling rig arriving at her village. The foreman went to the village elder to tell him his team had come to drill for water. They would like to have his permission to do some test drilling to search for the best spot to install a per­manent pump. The word spread quickly. The village would get water and there would be no more long walks to find some contaminated water. No more waterborne diseases such as bilharzia, affecting so many children.² A week later the team of workmen installed a brand new pump just outside the village. When the foreman announced that every­thing was in place, Abinish ran to the pump and listened to the foreman explaining how to operate the pump and how to look after it. Abinish couldn’t wait any longer, she pushed forward and fell on her knees and wickedly splashed hands full of water in her face … aaaah water precious water.

Water Use Taken for Granted←⤒🔗

In stark contrast, in our western world, it is difficult to estimate the amount of water we need to maintain an acceptable minimum living standard. Different sources figure that, on average, 20 to 40 liters of fresh water per person per day is needed to meet the bare minimum, for drinking and sanitation. If water for bathing and cooking is included, this figure can go easily higher.

In the developing regions of the world people use domestically far less water than in the West.

For example: In Africa the annual water withdrawals average 47 litres per person per day.

In Asia 85 litres. In the UK 334 litres. In the USA 578 litres. In Australian cities 250-300 litres.

In New-Zealand (Larger Auckland region) 185 litres.³ Globally, the level of water use reflects the level of urbanization. Low house­hold water use in many developing countries today reflects the difficulty in getting to fresh water. Two thirds of the world’s population, the majority in the developing countries get their water from public standpipes, com­munity wells, rivers, lakes, or rain water collected off roofs. As the world becomes predominantly more urban, and agriculture depends more and more on irrigation, it will become difficult for cities to meet rising demand for fresh water.⁴

So, how Wasteful have We Become?←⤒🔗

“Pure water” is sold worldwide in plastic bottles in all sizes and shapes. The demand has risen to 89 billion bottles. In the USA alone, 14 billion sipper bottles are sold every year and 90% of the plastic ends up as landfill, taking 1000 years to biodegrade. The demand for bottled water will triple over the next 10 years. This so-called “pure water”, the quality of which is debatable, is heavily promoted by the bottling industry; everyone is buying it, thinking it is good for them. The pressure on drink water infrastructures, in some regions is so great that it threatens agriculture, which relies heavily on irrigation. Water depletion has become an additional problem to an existing water shortage.

We only have to look at the inorganic waste collection at the curbside of what is thrown out. Think about the amount of junk mail arriving in our mail boxes and how much paper is wasted. But this is only small fry. Think about industrial waste, chemical waste, toxic waste, nuclear waste, air- and water pollution, agriculture run-offs, and so the list goes on.

Deforestation←⤒🔗

Before widespread human settlement began to encroach on the borders of the Amazon rain forests there was no fire season. Today, fire poses the main threat to the survival of the Amazon ecosystem. Slash and burn agriculture converts rain forest into farmland. The obvious destruction is only the beginning. The fires get frequently out of control and burn into the underwood of nearby forests, killing, but not completely burning small trees, vines and shrubs. The dead trees are falling to the forest floor and so opening up the forest canopy overhead. This in turn heats up the forest floor push­ing fire danger to the highest level. Smoke from the fires suppresses rainfall and so begins an unnatural dry season. The forest soil is so fragile and easily exhausted, these farms can’t sustain grazing or growing crops for more than two or three years. With the rainy season and the hot sun baking down on the forest floor, the soil simply disap­pears. So, when the farmers are left with the rocky sub-soil underneath on which nothing will grow; they move on and do some more slashing and burning. There is no alternative, unless the poverty problem is addressed properly. The Brazilian govern­ment is in no position to help, being heavily in debt to the World Bank. In the mean time it takes up to a hundred years for the rain forest to regenerate, without the hardwood trees. “Save the rain forest,” they say, but what are the alternatives, let people die of starvation? Billions upon billions of dollars are spent on warfare, to safeguard “wealth and prosperity”. If only 10% of that money would be spend to alleviate poverty on the two thirds of the needy world’s population, the wanton destruction of the environment would be drastically reduced.⁵

Stewardship and Our Responsibility←⤒🔗

Of all the TV ads, I like a cheese ad best. It is a story of a schoolboy friendship between “Me and Billy Wallis” that lasted well in to retirement. It’s not the story as such that I admire, but the breathtaking pictures of an awe-inspiring piece of wilderness down by the river, with the alpine mountains as the backdrop. It captures the moods of the seasons: “All good things take time”.

That’s how it must have been, in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth and planted the Garden of Eden, unspoiled, in perfect harmony and in soul-refreshing splendour.

God said: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over ... all the creature … “Be fruitful … fill the earth and subdue it”. (Gen.1:26-28) There are only a handful of Bible verses that talk about the image of God and how God created human beings in His own image. It is remarkable that as soon as human beings are mentioned in the Bible, they are immediately described as having been made in the image of God. By Divine design we are God’s image-bearers and each of us is a mirror in which others should be able to see God’s likeness. But because sin has corrupted us, this God-likeness has become defaced. We need to be delivered from our sins if we are going to come even close to being like God. In the New Testament, Paul tells us that, as we become more like Jesus, the image of God, so damaged by sin, is re­paired and renewed in us. The more we grow in Christ-likeness, the more we are renewed in the image of God, our original design. As baptized believers we have to “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowl­edge in the image of the Creator”. (Col. 3:10) In the beginning, we were made in the likeness of God. In Christ we are re-created in that likeness. So, what does it mean to bear this image?

The author of Genesis 1 mentions two other things: the fact that we were made male and female, and the fact that we have been given the mandate to rule over this world and all its creatures. This obligates us, as God’s vice-regents, to act in a way that is consistent with God’s own standard of care. If we don’t behave like God in how we treat all the creatures, the water resources in particular and the environment in general, we are not being true to God’s purpose in creating us. Instead we once again allow sin to smear God’s image to the point that it is all but lost from sight.

The Lord Keep You←⤒🔗

Genesis not only tells us that we are rulers over the earth, but also forces us to grapple with this basic question: “What does it mean to be a God-like ruler over all of creation?” God’s image-bearers are given the charge to “work and take care of,” or to “tend and keep” the creation. The word “take care of” or to “keep” is the word used in Aaron’s benediction, “The Lord bless you and keep you…” (Numbers 6:24) When a minister closes a worship service with this benedic­tion, why are we glad to hear that God is go­ing to “keep” us? Is it not because we know that such divine keeping implies a protective nurturing, and a providential attending to our health, safety and wellbeing? If God’s keeping of us means His careful, attentive, providential guarding of all that we are and all that we have, then our keeping of God’s world should reflect exactly that. We are to preserve, to love and tenderly hold His crea­tion, not ruling it in a despotic but a Godlike way. For, like Jesus, we are most like God, when we rule by becoming servants.

A Lord Like Jesus←⤒🔗

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk … I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love… (Hosea 11:3a-4) What does it mean for human beings, as God’s image­-bearers, to “rule” the earth in the way God rules it? The Heidelberg Catechism tells us in this lovely phrase, “the Almighty power by which He upholds, as with His hand, heaven and earth and all creatures.” We are told that all things come from “His Fatherly Hand.” Although described as an Almighty power, He is not a ruthless despot. Rather, God rules gently with a Fatherly hand, as Hosea beautifully expresses in chapter 11; God takes His children by the hand as they slowly learn to walk. The nature of God’s dominion over all things is similar to the loving and kind way a good parent rules his household. God has His eye upon the sparrow, seeing to its every need. His superintending of this world is attentive and tender. As image bearers of the Creator, we should give God’s design for each creature room to flourish.

The Hope for Creation←⤒🔗

The Bible is realistic about the dismal state of our fallen world. But it is also hopeful that God will not let it remain in this state. Hope, like good fertiliser, has been spread throughout this earth. The creation does respond to its Maker and is even now cling­ing to the hope God infused into His creatures. But, for now we still experience the sadness and pain of our world. This is not how things are supposed to be. This earth, and the entire cosmos, is the creation God loves and adores. He holds it close and has died to redeem all of it. To envision the new kingdom as anything other than a renewed creation would be to concede a great victory to Satan. If God would have to annihilate the present cosmos, then Satan would have succeeded in so devastatingly corrupting the present cosmos and the present earth that God could do nothing with it but blot it out of existence. But God will prove His victory over Satan by salvaging and re-invigorating this very earth that Satan has so long been seek­ing to destroy. For the believer there is hope in, and for, a new heaven and a new earth, this is the best way to live joyfully despite all the wanton environmental destruction and water pollution. We have God’s word to tell us how to distinguish between what is right from what is wrong in creation. But nothing is as grand as what we learn from the prophet Isaiah and from the apostle Paul: that God Himself will make sure that what He intended for His creation in the beginning will in the end return and triumph. This is a hope that can further enhance our joy in a creation that will endure for all eternity. We look to God and His Word for guidance in all of life because we believe that only there do we find a consistent vision for this creation in the past, the present and the future. We stick with the gospel truth of our God because we know He is the Word of God who spoke crea­tion into being and He will one day be the same Word of God to re-speak the creation into a new order. We recognize that, as in all moral matters, so also in regard to the creation: We must live in accordance with God’s design and wishes. We are commissioned to keep and take care of all things God created, that He still takes delight in, that He died to save, and that He will one day recreate. Christians should be staunch environmentalists in the true Biblical sense, not because we have our own best interests at heart, but because we have God’s best interests at heart:

May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works.Psalm 104:31

He has chosen us to keep and care this part of God’s visible glory alive and to let His praise continue. The glory of the Lord is all around us, if we just would see and appreciate it.⁶