At Home

 

Today's pagan celebration of the Earth brings to mind many things. First, that I'm thankful that God has filled the void in my soul, negating the necessity to search for a Cause, a Reason with which to fill the vacuum only God can fill. 

Secondly, that it's interesting that most of what I've read and heard and seen of Earth Day 2012 has been geared towards children, or towards aiding parents in teaching their children to celebrate Earth Day. 

But mostly, the thought that keeps repeating itself in my mind is most easily summed up in a chorus I've loved since childhood...

This world is not my home I'm just a passing throughMy treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore





Perhaps the reason that so much of our present society's methods, their means, their motives baffle and mostly, astonish me, is that I truly can't feel at home in this world anymore.

Don't misunderstand. I love this world; I love the mountains in the fall and the sky in May. I love the birds flying South in November and the hyacinths blooming in the spring. God has created this Earth to be magnificent, majestic, and I appreciate, daily, His handiwork.

And I have a lot to finish here... there's still a lot to teach my munchies, a lot I want to experience, and there's always that book I still need to write. 

But I won't spend a day or even an hour in contemplative meditation on what this Earth is to me and what I am to it. I'm not worried about what the world will look like to my children or my children's children. I'm not concerned about the expenditure of natural resources or the footprint my existence is placing on the Earth. God created this world, and while I will be a person of character, of stewardship while here, I know I don't need to worry about its future. God has already ordained it, and thankfully, it's out my - or any other human's - hands.

So today, instead of worshiping the Earth and it's greatness, I'm looking towards a house not made with hands and thanking the Creator of All Things for His everlasting mercy.

The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. ~Ps. 24:1