Why we don't have nice things....

This morning, my friend Melissa was searching for her phone everywhere in the office. She walked by me with the remark, "See, this is why we don't have nice things."
We both chuckled, and I thought about how many hundreds of times I heard that from my mom and grandmother because of how I treated the many fine things they had bought over the years.

At staff chapel this morning, the pastor walked us through a reading of Genesis 2:6-3:1.

2:6 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

2:7 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

2:8 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

2:9 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

3:1 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

At first I was reflecting on the beauty of creation and that God called it good. I thought, "What an honor it is to be the keepers of this creation." He gave us dominion over all the plants and seed and trees and fruit and of all living creatures!

Suddenly, the statement from earlier that morning hit me. How poorly humanity has treated God's creation - which he has placed in our care.

Sure, it's a bummer that I cut my moms couch with a knife when I was 7. It was sad that I broke my grandmothers lead crystal vase and lost the ruby ring my mom gave me for graduation. We'll get over that.

But it is staggering to think about how we - the very children of God - have defaced, vandalized and abused the beauty He entrusted to us.

Will creation get over that? Will we?