Earth Day, New Creation, and Our Calling
Brian is a long-time CMF missionary serving in West Africa, and he also leads our Creation Care Cohort, where we celebrate and inspire creation care across CMF ministries. Brian and his team integrate agricultural development, beekeeping, tree planting, urban gardening, nutrition, and Creation Care education into their evangelistic efforts through Chronological Bible Storying. Here, Brian shares reflections on Earth Day and our calling as Christians to participate in the reconciliation and restoration of God’s creation.
Friends,
With all that’s happening in the world, you may have forgotten that Earth Day is today—or you may be wondering what the point is of a relatively small act in the midst of the large-scale chaos and suffering we are experiencing. Honestly, I find myself more than a little overwhelmed by the brokenness of the world right now.
Yet, even in the midst of the chaos, each act of faithfulness matters. Every time we follow the commands to love the Creator with our whole hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves, we take part in something beautiful. These acts may seem small, but their ripple effects can reach far beyond what we imagine. Earth Day is one such opportunity—an invitation to love Creator and neighbor in tangible ways that draw people closer to God and to one another.
Whether on April 22 or any other day, I hope you’ll find meaningful, concrete ways—however small—to push back against the madness with beauty and kindness. I promise, it will do your heart good too.
This calling reminds me of Genesis 1, where God’s Spirit hovers over the darkness and the deep abyss—powerful symbols of chaos in the Hebrew imagination. We often think of this moment as emptiness, but Scripture portrays something more unsettling: deep, dark waters of chaos. It is over this chaos that God speaks life into being—calling forth beauty, goodness, and order. A crescendo of seven declarations of “good” sings the truth of God’s love for creation.
When God surveys all that He has made, with humans authorized as His image bearers to cultivate, bless, and protect this abundant, interconnected community of creation, He declares it all very good.
We know all too well what follows. The biblical story quickly turns to brokenness, suffering, and death as Adam, Eve, and their descendants choose self-will and profit over the life-giving limits God put in place. Much of the rest of Scripture tells the story of God’s tireless work to reconcile His people to Himself and to restore them to their calling—mediating peace and blessing to the world on His behalf.
All of the covenants and promises that once seemed impossible to fulfill come to fruition in Jesus.
In John 1, we’re told that the Word who spoke the world into being became flesh and dwelt among us. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus inaugurates His kingdom, reconciling us to God and ushering in a new creation.
“For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13–14)
“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19–20)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17–19)
Through Christ, we have become not only God’s children, but co-heirs with Christ in this new creation. Creation itself is groaning as it waits for us to step fully into our identity, authority, and responsibility as God’s heirs (Romans 8:17–21).
What a profound privilege—to partner with God through Christ in His beautiful work of reconciliation and restoration.
In this Easter season, may we practice resurrection.