Daily Environmental Stewardship

Dear God of all creation,

This morning I stepped outside and watched a cardinal land on a branch still glazed with frost. For three seconds, everything was holy. That bird did not know it was preaching, but it proclaimed what Ephesians 2:14 declares — that You are our peace, the One who tears down every wall of hostility, even the wall we have built between ourselves and the earth You handcrafted for us.

We confess, Lord, that we have treated Your creation like a landlord treats a property he never plans to visit. We have drawn a line between the "spiritual" and the "physical," as though the soil beneath our feet is not the same dust You breathed life into in Genesis. But You are the God who breaks down dividing walls. Reconcile us not only to one another but to the groaning world around us.

Teach us that picking up trash along the creek behind the church is an act of worship. That planting a garden in a vacant lot is Baptist preaching without a pulpit. That when we protect clean water for a community downstream, we love our neighbor in the most concrete way possible.