Caring for All of Creation

In teaching a lesson on creation in a third grade Faith Formation class at my parish, we read parts of Genesis, discussed all that God made and how through Divine Providence we now take care of God’s gift of Creation.

I asked for volunteers to share a picture they drew of themselves helping God’s Gift and listing ways to care for His Creation. After a few minutes I realized that the children missed a major objective of the lesson, as each of them focused on one small part. Every child save one, 18 in all, showed some way to recycle, plant a tree, a garden or preserve the oceans as their answer. Only one boy drew a picture of himself helping other people for the exercise.

Is this a reflection of society’s values our children are learning? That plants, trees, animals and the earth are more important than humans? Every day, their heads are filled with “Save the Planet” and “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” on the television, at school and on t-shirts. Why are we not flooding our children with the more important message?

God created humans in His image. We are God’s Creation.

God created us in His image and He calls us to show respect for all people, treating them with dignity. As Christians, we believe that we are the most precious of all God’s creations. We cannot care for nature at the expense of the human being.

This year during Respect Life month, we need to shift our focus from “Saving the Planet” to “Caring for all of God’s Creation.”