Our call to care for the planet goes beyond recycling: lessons on creation stewardship

By Tohru Inoue | International in

As a child growing up in Canada, I thought recycling was the best way to help the planet. The world’s problems were much too big for us as children, but finally, there was something we could do as well, right from our home.  

We used the flip side of the page for our drawings and paintings before it finally got recycled. The practice has followed me into adulthood. I print and edit all my written work on both sides of a sheet of A4 before it's discarded. Dropping things in the blue bin always felt very satisfying. We imagined all the good we were doing. Old newspapers, plastic and glass bottles were being remade into other products and round and round it went. In my young mind, there was now something I could do. 

But my understanding of all my efforts were turned on its head when I chatted with Ian Ratcliff, SIM's Ministry Point Person for Creation Stewardship and Care. 

What is creation stewardship? 

Creation care isn’t just about looking after the environment, it’s part of our call as Christians. Many of us first learn to recycle or reuse things and feel like we’re doing our bit. But caring for creation goes deeper than habits or rules. It’s about how we see the world and our role in it. God made this earth and called it good. He gave us the responsibility to care for it. In mission work, we often focus on people, and rightly so, but the Bible reminds us that God’s love extends to all of creation. Looking after the planet is part of showing His love in action. 

Ian tells me “Recycling is… just one step above landfill. But most people think first about recycling.” 

Huh!? 

But, on reflecting back to my elementary school years, I remembered the lesson more accurately. Recycling was introduced as one of three things we could do: namely along with ‘Reduce’ and ‘Reuse.’ 

It’s a natural tendency to gravitate toward what is most visible and marketable. Recycling came with a shiny blue box. It was something we could do, and it was fun to drop things into a special bin. 

‘Reusing’ was also something easy to get into. I like buying secondhand clothes and books if I can. I feel good about both the financial savings and the extended life pre-used items get. But, mostly, I remember the crafts that my father made by reusing old cardboard boxes. Great long chains of Premium Plus boxes became train cars and cereal boxes that became robot costumes. And I have my own stories of improvised toys made for my children with grocery store boxes, toilet paper rolls and a bit of ingenuity. 

But, we never reminisce over stories of ‘Reducing.’ No one, at family gatherings, says, “Remember the time we didn’t buy that toy?” Reusing and recycling involve things we can do, but reducing consists of what we refrain from doing. Reducing is invisible. But, Ian explains, it’s arguably the most important step among the three. Not bringing it into the house already eliminates the need to reuse and recycle altogether. 

A different worldview: not what we do but who we are 

I learned that care for God’s world is more than any of the three. It’s not about sorting different materials into the proper bins or making crafts out of old things or even refraining from buying. That view was too simplistic. It’s not just about something you do or don’t do for a planet. It’s holding a vision of the world where God is at its center. That our actions are not divorced from his presence but occur in the midst of it. 

God is Creator of all things. He entrusts us with the great snow-covered mountains, the coral filled shallow seas, the breathtaking grasslands and deep rainforests. And he loves them all. 

This is not about recycling nor is it about reusing or reducing. More than what we do, it’s who we are. We were made for much more than recycling. We are stewards. 

I still like to recycle. I still like to reuse things before they’re tossed. And I know my children will want to do what they can, just like I did when CFCs — those chemicals in old fridges and spray cans that damaged the ozone layer — were the big concern. I’ll still teach our children all those lessons, but hopefully, also to think about who they are in this world that God created. 

Prayer: 

• Pray for wisdom in the small choices we make each day, that we would be mindful not just of what we do (like recycling or reusing), but of how we live in a way that honours God. 

• Lift up mission workers around the world who are caring for both people and the planet, ask that creation care would be seen as part of the gospel message and that the church would lead with humility and action.