Reflections

²⁷God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

 28God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

 29Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

 30and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.  Genesis 1: 27-30

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  God also created man and gave man dominion over all the earth.  As much as we have dominion over the earth including all the land and creatures, we have responsibilities in caring for the land and its creatures.  That is why it is so sad to see what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico with the oil spill.

For decades we have talked about relying less on oil and finding ways to better conserve energy and find more efficient means in powering our automobiles and other means of transportation.  There is technology available but we have chosen to continue to rely on oil as our main source.

So now when we see the lives that were lost with this oil rig explosion and the millions of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf – was it worth it?  We will now take responsibility of our land and living creatures and make better choices in how we use nature’s resources?

The spill in the Gulf is so overwhelming; we can only guess the damage that this spill will cause to the ecosystem and the livelihood of those who live along the Gulf Coast.  Maybe the best thing to do is to acknowledge our weaknesses and pray that God will intervene on our behalf.  Hopefully, this will serve as a wakeup call that we have bigger responsibilities in subduing the earth and caring for its creatures.  We cannot allow money to continue to be our sole focus.  The oil companies do have a responsibility, but we have a greater one in keeping them accountable and finding other ways to conserve energy.