Celebrate the Gift of Creation

This week we observe two days which remind us to be

good stewards of God's creation. 

Tuesday is Earth Day.  Responding to widespread environmental degradation, Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, called for an environmental teach-in, or Earth Day.  On April 22, 1970, over 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment.  Earth Day is now observed each year on April 22 by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries.  The success of the grassroots campaigns and congressional support led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts. 

April 22 is also the birthday of Julius Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, a national tree-planting holiday started in 1872.  Arbor Day became a legal holiday in Nebraska in 1885, to be permanently observed on April 22.  In the United States, National Arbor Day is observed on the last Friday in April.  However, because the ideal time to plant trees varies with the climate, many individual states observe Arbor Day on other dates. Many southern states observe Arbor Day as early as January or February, while in some northern areas Arbor Day is not held until May.  This year we celebrate Arbor Day on Friday, April 25.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  ...Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so.  The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. --Genesis 1:1, 11-12