Respecting all of Creation

Sow your land for six years and gather it's produce. But during the seventh year you are to let it rest and leave it uncultivated, so that the poor among your people may eat from it and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same for your vineyards and your olive grove.

Do you work for six days and rest on the seventh day so that your ox and donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave as well as the foreign resident may be refreshed. Exodus 23:10,11

At the heart of God is love and respect for all mankind, animals and the earth.

By making room to breathe we respect our own bodies, our animals bodies and the earth.

In Australia farmers are aware that lack of respect for the earth has given rise to soil salinity and a problem called 'deep drainage.' When ground cover and trees are missing the soil is eroded and loses vital carbon. By allowing fields used for crops to rest the animals can graze and their excrement can fertilize the soil. However, excessive grazing and drought can destroy the soil.

God knew that men would clear land to grow crops and this was not an issue. He then gave a plan to care for the land and it's people. This  shows respect.

If God makes provision for the ox, the donkey, the foreigner, the poor and the earth so can we. We can start by respecting our God, our neighbour and our animals. Respect for the land comes in the way we pick up our rubbish, care for what we are given with a little thought. Lack of thought and living out if base carnal emotions is very destructive, we need to go lower, think then act. Amen!