Smokin’ Hot: Do We Care About Creation?

For the July 31 2026 "From the Minister's Study" column in The Citizen 

Summer is upon us – and with it, the wildfires have resumed what seems to be their now-annual devastation. Smoke from northern Ontario for several days obscured our vision and caused difficulty for those with chronic respiratory issues. At the pharmacy where I work as an assistant, we sold out of masks, and inhalers were in high demand; one older gentleman exclaimed, “I don’t remember anything like this when I was growing up!”

I am not going to attempt to solve the debate about whether climate change is real, or address the latest conspiracy theory about why the fires seem so bad. What is not up for debate is the reality of the smoke from the wildfires. To what extent should Christ-followers be concerned? Should the church take a stand on environmental issues, or simply stick to so-called ‘spiritual matters’?

I grew up in a mainline denomination which has historically taken a very ‘activist’ approach to environmental issues, anxious to preserve the environment, urging divestment from suspect corporations, urging congregants to write letters to their parliamentarians on social justice matters. As an older teen I became influenced by more conservative, premillennial branches of the faith; I remember as a counselor at a boys’ camp being impacted by the 1972 movie A Thief in the Night about the Rapture (dramatic return of Christ, plucking believers out of the world). As I read my Bible I was impressed by apocalyptic passages such as 2Peter 3:10,12 - “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up… That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.” (NASB95)

It was easy to draw the conclusion that - if Jesus was coming back soon, we weren’t going to be here on this planet, and it was all going to be torched anyway – why should we be concerned about preserving the environment?

Yet there are other Scripture passages that would suggest God does in fact want us to care for the environment and be good stewards of this world He created. At the outset of Genesis we read, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (2:15) Not torch it but take care of it!

Agriculturally, good stewardship of the land can be beneficial. My cash-cropping brother explored a no-till approach before it became widespread; as the years passed, he commented the additional organic matter helped build up the soil so that it became ‘just like a sponge’ so could retain moisture rather than erode in heavy downpours. Continuous corn can tend to mine the soil and deplete its nutrients, so generally today farmers employ crop rotation techniques.

When I was very young, it was not uncommon for land to be left ‘fallow’ (uncultivated) for a season rather than continuously cropped. At Sinai, God gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments, including guidance about the Sabbath. It does not seem they followed the “sabbath year” concept in their farming. Eventually they were conquered by foreign powers (Assyria then Babylon). During a 70-year exile, as 2Chronicles notes, “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.” (36:21) Note how ‘the land’ here seems personified, deserving of proper care.

In the psalms, metaphorically, the rivers “clap their hands” and the hills “sing for joy” (98:8). Likewise, in Isaiah the mountains and the hills “break forth…into singing”, and trees “clap their hands.” (55:12)

Coming to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus drew extensively from nature for His teaching parables: a tree bearing fruit; seed being sown; clouds rising, a south wind blowing; a fig tree in a vineyard; a mustard seed; lost sheep; vultures gathering, to name a few. In key sermons He admonished His hearers to “consider the ravens… consider how the lilies grow…” (Luke 12:24,27)

Stewardship of what’s been entrusted to us is a strong theme in Jesus’ teaching. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” (Luke 16:10f)

The Apostle Paul also attributed dignity to the physical world – in contrast to Gnostic thought, which viewed matter as inherently inferior and evil. “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed… We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:19,22) So our planet and its environment is something to be valued and cared for, not exploited or trashed.

Unlike the most radical environmentalists, we do not worship creation or confuse it with divinity, as in pantheism. But neither do we treat it as something disposable, to be mined and polluted then discarded. God has placed us here in relationship with it to tend it with care end enjoy its fruits accordingly. To have to be ‘exiled’ from our uniquely hospitable planet is not an appealing option!