In God’s “original mandate,” God made humans stewards to guard and guide God’s good earth, not “owners” free to plunder, kill and ravage the people and other creatures of the planet. The seer of Revelation said (like Genesis 6) that God would destroy those (specifically, in his focus, the brutal Roman emperors and those who served them) who wickedly destroy the earth.

• Joni Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi” revolved around these lyrics: “Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you’ve got/’Til it’s gone./They paved paradise/ And put up a parking lot.” Think about what you know of the complex social and economic interactions we call “civilization.” Which parts of it have focused on caring for and nurturing creation as “God’s garden,” and which parts instead have involved “destroying the earth”?
• Choose one specific way you can change your life to emulate Noah in caring for the people and animals on God’s earth. An idea may already be sitting in the back of your mind—perhaps it is an “inner nudge” from God.