October 2016
“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” – Genesis 1:31a
Today is the last day of my vacation, and I am at the airport in Anchorage, Alaska. Pastor Kookho and I visited Alaska as a honeymoon trip. Although it has been one year and eight months since we got married, we still consider this trip as our honeymoon. This is because Alaska was my long time dream place for a honeymoon. Now, our nine day honeymoon travel is done and it is time to go back home.
For the last nine days, I have experienced a lot of things, especially I have been enjoying nature’s beauty. Actually, when we planned this trip, we were expecting to see glacier covered mountains, Eskimos, Igloos, and bears and moose everywhere. However, it is fall here in Alaska, so we saw a bunch of yellows leaves everywhere instead of snow-clad mountains. There was nothing really different from the scenery of Evanston, IL where Kookho and I spent 4 years before we came to Wisconsin.
On the third day of our trip, we visited “Exit Glacier National Park” to see an actual iceberg. Although we saw them while we were taking a glacier cruise, it was too far, so we wanted to see them close up. This was a part of the reason behind our Alaska trip. I was so excited and nervous, and I was fully ready to face the cold weather. While we were heading to edge of glacier, there were many signs indicating particular numbers. 1926, 1951, 1961… 2005, and 2010. I was wondering about the meaning of those numbers. When I arrived at the last point, I have finally figured out what they mean. That was the location of the edge of glacier of the year.
We were totally freaked out. There was a huge gap between the 2005 and 2010 markers, and there was an even wider gap between 2010 and the current edge of the glacier. Unfortunately, I could witness the melting speed is increasing. This is the reason why the scenery of Alaska is completely different from what I expected. Basically the iceberg looks blue because of its density from longtime compression. However, it is gradually losing its original color and melting too quickly. This rapid melting has effects on the sea level and the living environment of humans and animals.
According to Genesis, when God created and saw everything that he had made, it was good. However, I think it is no longer good enough. Protecting and conserving God’s whole creation is our responsibility and duty as human beings. Especially as members of the United Methodist Church, based on our social principles and creed, we address that God has granted us stewardship of creation, so we should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect of the natural world. This is not only because they are very useful to us, but also they are God’s creation. From now on, we should care about environmental issue and start one little action for it. Remember, from small beginnings came great things! As Christians, we should make everything look very good again, just as it did in the beginning.
Blessings,
Pastor Ran