Given into our hands

Stewarding the Earth in cooperation with and according to the will of God is the task given to humans.

We are to be proactive in our care for all that God created through Christ. As people who bear His name we need to keep in the forefront that this Earth and all its creatures who are his. They are not ours, they are his given to us to steward and care for. This stewardship includes the use of animals for food and clothing. This is a great gift given to us by God in Genesis 9:2. Shortly after Noah has rescued two of every kind of animal God gives an additional use for animals, to killed and eaten so that we can have life.

God is generous in not sparing even the lives of the animals for us. God who created and sustains all life has given us dominion over the lives of the creatures. This is an awesome responsibility and one not to be taken lightly. We must treat the life and death of animals with reverence because it is not us who gives life to all and it is only because of God's gift that we can take the life of an animal. We certainly don't worship the animal but we do worship the God who created them and treat them as a gift from him and a sign of his generosity and love. Therefore they are not something to abuse because in doing so we dishonor the one who gave them to us.

Love for Christ deems the necessity to use wise principles in how we manage our personal and societal impact on Christ's creation. We see this kind of wisdom emerging in many of the conservation organizations who are working hard to restore habitat to animals, manage their numbers through controlled hunting and create an awareness and care for the gift and beauty of nature.

While these groups are not inherently Christian I think that all Christians should support these groups. Currently the church is not poised to make the impact that these groups are and it does not need to. Christians can work like yeast in these organizations bringing spiritual knowledge and depth to the conservation movement. We have a necessary and important role to lay in the movement.