Put In Charge
The water at Coquina Beach was stunning. It always is. It sparkles like diamonds under the sun… wide open, stretching farther than the eye can see. I love to watch people in the water, laughing, enjoying it just as it was meant to be enjoyed. When I snapped this photo, it felt like everything was perfect for a photograph.
And then I noticed, in the foreground… off to the left… there. See it? A wadded-up napkin or sandwich wrapper.
“You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, made us stewards of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.”
Psalm 8:6–8 (MSG)
We weren’t just given the right to enjoy our world. We were given the responsibility of caring for it. That one single wrapper isn’t a whole dump. It’s just one small piece of rubbish. It’s even easy to miss if you’re looking at the horizon instead of the ground.
But still, it doesn’t belong and over time, those small things add up. Stewardship isn’t always about big, sweeping acts. Sometimes it looks like noticing what doesn’t belong…and choosing not to leave it there. I wish I had noticed it that day and could have picked it up and disposed of it properly. I missed that opportunity but I can bend over and pick up a cup rolling around in my bank parking lot, or a lost coloring page that’s been misplaced at a public park.
We have so many opportunities to be good stewards of this beautiful world God has given to us. Try not to grouch about the mess and look at it as an opportunity to bend over…(that’s good for you)… to practice humility by cleaning something up that wasn’t your mess to begin with… to set a good example for others… and to obey the command that God gave us to be caretakers of our world.
What would it look like today to take responsibility for one thing that isn’t technically yours to clean up… but has still been placed in your path?
From my heart to yours,
Kelly.