OUR EARTHLY HOME

If there is no God, there is no home. The universe is a blind and pitiless machine. Human beings appeared in it by accident. We have minds and consciousness and desires and hopes, but the forces of the universe will one day crush them all, and us along with them.  We don't belong here. The Bible, on the other hand, indicates that the reason we love the earth so much is that God made it to be our home.

The first home was called the garden of Eden. The story of the fall is, among other things, a reflection of our homesickness.

God told human beings to exercise dominion over the earth. That means it is our home but that it is really a gift. The deed is in His name. We are supposed to take care of it. Richard Foster writes, "We plant evergreens and compost garbage, we clean a room and put coasters under glasses, and in these ways we help to tidy up Eden."

-- John Ortberg in Faith & Doubt

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