Louis Armstrong sang it; millions of us have hummed along: ‘What a wonderful world’. Sure, God made it good – Genesis tells us so repeatedly and finishes up by God declaring it all ‘very good’. However, if creation was created very good, what’s happened since? What about predation, disease, cruelty, viruses, volcanoes, disability, earthquakes? Continue reading
In The Matrix, Agent Smith says, “Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.” The idea of humans as a virus species is becoming increasingly widespread. No part of the planet is left untouched as we swarm over it, multiplying, polluting, consuming, destroying. Yet most Christians react in horror at the idea. Surely we are ‘made in the image of God’? Continue reading
I have just returned from Provence and four days of meetings with the A Rocha International Team. So good to be face to face again – or should I say screen to screen? Continue reading
When I Google ‘Do material things matter to God?’ I find over 20,000,000 results. Some sites warn of the dangers material things pose to our relationship with God; others claim to give the secret of material prosperity. It seems Christians are mightily confused about whether the stuff we think we own, the world of nature, even our own bodies, are deep-down good or not. Continue reading
I’m just back from Hong Kong. It was an encouraging trip for all our small team from the region, but I was also able to fulfil a long-held dream when I finally got to visit Mai Po. This important wetland is one of the very few remaining on the south China coast, and the numbers of shorebirds are increasing because other places where birds can feed and roost undisturbed are disappearing so fast. Continue reading
When I was a child growing up in India, there was a song we often sang at school: “This land is your land, this land is my land, / From the Himalayas down to Cape Comorin, / From Bombay city to old Calcutta, / This land was made for you and me.” Connection to place is important and good. Yet there’s a big difference between belonging to a place, and the place belonging to us. Continue reading