Day 2: Or What Should have been Day 2

Excuses Excuses...

"then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light." Gen. 1:3

Human beings live for excuses. Our sinful natures program it into our DNA. Think of a baby. Innocent of the evils of the world maybe. For about the first day or two. But as soon as they comprehend that if they scream like little banshees they get what they want, innocence is done for. When they start to learn right from wrong, even before they can walk, they learn the word no. But we give them an excuse. 'Oh they're just a baby. They don't know any better.' Yeah. Tell that to a baby who grins because he knows he has a poopy diaper and you make that funny face when you change him.

Ignorance seems to be the biggest excuse everyone falls back on. 'I didn't know!' we cry. When it comes to our earth and the natural resources God provided, we can say that our ancestors didn't know those resources were limited because they couldn't comprehend science and technology as we know it today. Maybe. Except God warned them about how to use their resources wisely. Take Exodus 22:5. Here God is telling the wandering Israelites the laws of the land. And how to use it.

"When someone causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets livestock loose to graze in someone else field, restitution shall be make from the best in the owner's field or vineyard."

The Israelites didn't have to know that stripping their fields of vegetation causes the rain to run off and flood other regions and dries up the soil. God knew. He told them not to do it. Now those who didn't listened learned the hard way and discovered why God told them not to do such a thing. But they could not use ignorance as an excuse not to do God's will.

The world tries to do the same thing when it comes to our planet. We shift the blame, saying we didn't know or this thing caused it not us. Had we known about it we would have stopped it. Like BP and the recent oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. They blamed the machinery. Thankfully they took responsibility for it. But I don't think I heard BP actually say 'we' messed up. I think I heard, 'Had we known this would have happened...'

Now before you start to feel good about yourself hang on. Christians have just as many excuses for not protecting God's earth. And we're going to discuss those excuses over the next few days. But I would say they all come down to that old standby.

"I didn't know..."