To rightly understand creation, we have to recognize its Creator. Scripture is clear and consistent that God created everything. Genesis 1 describes God’s act of creating the stars, our world, the plants, and animals. It also details His creation of humans as the pinnacle of creation—creating male and female in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). After finishing the work of creation on the sixth day, God called all that He had made “very good” (Gen. 1:31). It was perfect.

Worship Creator, not creation

Because we know there is a distinction between creation and Creator, we do not elevate the former over the latter or over humanity. Humans, not animals or any other part of creation, were created in the image of God and given a ruling position over the rest of creation. We join with creation in pointing others to God, not in pointing others to creation as god.

>Blog post: When the earth speaks

Creation is God’s general revelation of Himself to us. The Bible is full of examples where the Earth speaks. For example, Creation teaches us and reveals the existence of our Creator:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20

>Blog post: Jupiter: The Heavens Declare the Handiwork of God

We know the One who determines the future of Earth and our solar system is not Jupiter, but the Creator who in His infinite wisdom ordained Jupiter to be placed exactly where it needed to be and designed it to act exactly the way it does.

>Blog post: Hurricanes and Harambe: How Our Culture Puts Animals Before People

Animals were called good by the Creator and fall under the stewardship mandate of humans, but animals were not created in the image of God.

Climate change?

To understand human involvement in climate change— you have to go way back. We aren’t talking about which type of hairspray you are using, but the universal impact of the fall.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin into the world. The curse of sin spread from their decision to all of creation. God told Adam that his work would now take place in difficult soil, would require painful labor, and have to combat a hostile environment.

So the world is not how God intended it. When sin entered the world, it brought with it death and destruction. Because of sin, brokenness pervades our all our relationships. With God, with self, with others and with the creation He put into our care.We see evidence of this in how creation groans for the redemption of all things in Romans 8:22

Listen for more from Carmen:

Our call to creation care

Part of our imaging God has to do with the role we have been given with creation. God made everything out of nothing, but He placed humans over the creation He had made. In Genesis 2:15, God places Adam in the garden so that man could work and watch over the garden. The very first job humanity is given is to cultivate God’s creation. Adam is to tend and develop this garden God has given him.

So, because God created this world and made us stewards over it, because we are responsible for the curse that is on it now, and because it will continue to exist in eternity, the Christian should have more reason than any other to care for creation. We want to care for the earth because it is a gift from our Father that reflects His nature and we will pass it down to those coming after us.

>Blog:Science and belief 

Understanding the difference between science and scientism is helpful in putting our creation care in the proper place.

>Astrophysicist Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is Director of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and she encourages us that it is a wonderful gift. “Consider scientific discoveries… as something to be grateful for, something to take time to let it instill a sense of wonder and awe and praise.” We can appreciate scientific knowledge as one piece in the tapestry of the created world to the glory of our Creator.