In an age when trees, woods, and forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate, the image of God planting cedars, acacias, myrtles, cypresses, and pines in the desert wasteland, is a rather timely and relevant one. God’s intervention is a reminder that the continuing damage being done to our environment is largely the result of human sin and its expression in greed and selfishness. In the face of the global environmental crisis, our individual efforts at ecological sensitivity and our puny attempts to make a difference can seem largely pointless. However, let us not forget that in addition to the external physical environment there is also that inner landscape of the human heart. And it is here that every effort at preserving the external environment, serves as an act of worship of its Creator, thereby enhancing our likeness to him. Conversely, any action that involves a careless misuse or disregard for creation undermines our humanity and renders us more unlike our Creator. So, plant that tree! And even though ten thousand are felled even as you do so, still, there is one more tree than there would otherwise have been and, more importantly, your heart will have become a little less like a desert wasteland and more like that lush primeval garden our First Parents were forced to abandon.
(ISAIAH: 41:13-20)
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