1 Corinthians 10:26 NIV. for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” …
“Who does this belong to?” My husband was asking me that question as he held up a beautiful black leather jacket for me to examine. “It’s not mine, too small for me!” Came my reply.
We both looked at the jacket-stumped! See, we are a hospitality household. By that I mean that we have opened our home to many different people over the last 20 years since we built the house. We actually had ‘hospitality’ in mind when we built it, and have 2 rooms and a full bath to accommodate our guests. Often our church would need a room for a Missionary or guest speaker to say over for 1 night, we would house and feed them. Often our son, when he was in college would bring home a group of young men, or his drama team as they toured. We would house and feed them (a lot). Now he is out of college and comes from the Philly area with his family and stays over. Of course, we have relatives from that area that stay overnight, also. When my husband was Pastor of a church, we would save the church the hotel costs, and house our guest speakers and missionaries. These visits are so educational as we listen to what God is doing in the lives of people literally, all over the world. We have had aunts and cousins, guest speakers, evangelists, prophets and a partridge in a pear tree. (Not really, it just sounded good).
Funny thing about all these people. They often leave something behind! Sometimes an intentional gift for the hosts, more often they leave behind an article of clothing, shoes, food, even once an ice pack! We did not locate that owner, so I use it, it’s really a nice ice pack!
All of these people, literally from all over the world, were the owner and care taker of these items. Yet they lost track of it for a moment, and left it behind. When we located the owner of the items,we either saved it until we saw them again, as in the case of our grandchildren who left their sneakers behind when they stayed for a few days. Often, we just mail a package to them with there item. That’s when I remember that I left my computer at my son’s home and he mailed it back to me!
Let’s talk for a minute about our ‘guest’ home, this big blue/green ball we live on called earth. Who owns it? Well, I guess if we look at it from a legal view, no one holds a deed or mortgage on earth. So who owns earth? Who is responsible for the daily ebb and flow of the tides? Who makes sure earth has enough sun to keep us warm, but not so much that we burn up. Who keeps the earth on the right plane so we don’t spin out of control. Who gives earth enough water so we all say hydrated? Earth is a really complex system that was imagined, created and then established, including the people, by the owner of the earth…God! We are only ‘guests’ here on His ‘guest home’. But, unlike humans who tend to be forgetful with their things, God is not! He knows what is going on with the earth every minute of every day. I can tell you truly He has the best accommodations and amenities, all for us! He knows every one of His guests, and enjoys spending time with us, and getting to know us. We, and His world are constantly on His mind. Do I know how He does it? Neither do I! I just trust that He is God and I am not, therefore, I leave all of it in His hands. When we go to a vacation with ‘everything included’ don’t you just love to go sit out on the deck with a good book and let all your cares slip away? That is what the owner of this ’10 trillion star’ establishment, ‘Earth’ tells us to do…cast your cares on Him, call Him-He will answer, don’t be anxious for anything-just ask for it.
‘Earth Day’ is coming up this month. And while I do believe we do need to care for and preserve this beautiful world that God made for us, we are very limited in the knowledge to do that. Ultimately, He has the world in His hands. And those are BIG hands. Remember He told Moses He would hide Him behind the shadow of His hand? There are so many things in this world that we are trying to fix. We think, we worry, work and fuss about these things until we are so stressed. We forget that the Owner of this great establishment is the One we need to call on. He is the one responsible for this earth. And the only one who knows how to fix it. I don’t believe we will every have to worry about another problem as long as He still owns this establishment we live in called Earth! Thank You Lord for this beautiful world we live in right now. What will the accommodations be when we get to the home you are preparing for us now, called Heaven?
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