I really never knew how much plastic and cardboard we used. But recently, finally finding ourselves with enough room to do so, we have begun to recycle in earnest.
We have a big plastic bin for plastic, another for cardboard, and another smaller one for glass. I was quickly amazed at how little of what we used to throw away actually falls into the category of "trash."
Each week or so we make a run to the recycling center, bypass the household garbage bin and throw our various materials into the bins for them to be recycled. It is only once a month or so now that we have to make an actual garbage run, and even then there are very few bags compared to years gone by.
Yes, I am quite aware of the fact that there is no verse that says, "And God said, thou shalt recycle." No, I am not becoming a "bleeding heart liberal."
I am still to the very core a constitutional conservative, pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, government-shall-be-limited-to-its-specified-powers kind of guy. I believe trees make excellent bats and lumber and are a renewable resource. I prefer vehicles that have enough metal to survive a head-on collision with an above-average-sized squirrel. I do not vote for liberals, ever.
All that said, I am all on board with recycling, and it is my biblical mooring that makes me so. It is that same biblical mooring that makes me detest litter, and get as ill as a hornet when people foul waterways.
Genesis 1:26 says, "And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'"
When God said that he gave man dominion over the Earth, it indicates that he was placing the Earth under his watch care.
Genesis 2:15 says, "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."
The word "dress" means "to serve in," and the word "keep" means "to preserve and protect."
Christians should be the best conservationists, the greatest lovers of nature, the guardians of the environment, because God made this planet and entrusted it to our care. Yes, I know that the modern environmental movement is often a smoke screen for liberal power grabbers. But if we can manage to ignore the utter insanity of people with self-benefiting ulterior motives, and well-meaning fringe dwellers who would have all men live in powerless grass huts and subsist solely on grubs and bean sprouts, we can likely find much common ground with those who cherish the environment and yet are reasonable in their approach on how to protect it.
Think of it this way: Why should Christians ever leave the care of the world that God created solely to others? If our God made it then we, above all else, have a responsibility to do what we can to take good care of it.
And so we recycle. And each time we take a load to their respective bins, I take a moment to thank my God and creator for the wonderful world he made for me to live in.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., and the author of several books available at www.wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.