Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Across the Pastor’s Desk by Kenneth Jensen

 

At the beginning of the second creation story (Genesis 2:4), the earth was a barren wasteland. From its dust, God fashioned Adam, breathed into him God’s spirit (in Hebrew “breath” and “spirit” are interchangeable), and Adam became a living being.

God placed Adam in a garden east of Eden after which “God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (verse 9). Then, “the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (verse 15).

Yesterday, April 24, was Arbor Day. It came about through the efforts of Julius Sterling Morton, who served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Grover Cleveland.

A native of New York state, Morton married Caroline Joy French in 1854 after which the couple moved to eastern Nebraska and settled on 160 treeless acres. He planted thousands of trees on their homestead, including an apple orchard, as well as peach, plum and pear trees, cottonwoods, evergreens, beech trees and more.

The first Arbor Day was observed on April 10, 1872, at Nebraska City — a day on which nearly 1 million trees were planted. Today, the original four-room house on the family homestead has been replaced by a 52-room mansion with a terraced garden, a pine grove and 65 acres of more than 250 varieties of trees and shrubs and is now a Nebraska state park.

Julius Morton exemplifies the responsibility God assigned Adam and us, namely, to till the earth and take care of the garden.

In the first creation story, God blessed Adam and Eve and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) The colonists who landed on our shores believed God had ordained them to deforest the hills, plow up the prairies, dam the rivers and exploit the land of its minerals and fossil fuels.

But times change and the Bible speaks to every generation in new ways. The earth can no longer replenish itself as it once did. We have populated our planet to the point where climate change is primarily due to human activity.

The pioneers understood the Genesis chapter 1 creation story as permission to utilize the natural resources of our planet for the betterment of their lives and society as a whole.

Today, we know our natural resources are finite. How we live and exploit them will dramatically affect the lives of our grandchildren.

While the first creation story spoke meaningfully to previous generations, it seems to me that the Biblical focus of our time ought to be on the story recorded in Genesis chapter 2.

Arbor Day reminds us that we are caretakers of God’s garden called “earth.” In celebrating Arbor Day, many will plant a tree to honor or in memory of someone. It is one way of acknowledging that we are partners with God in caring for this garden — planet earth.

The Rev. Kenneth Jensen is a retired ELCA pastor living in Albert Lea.