Web of life

"If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it." 1 Corinthians 12.26

We are midway through Christian Aid Week and yesterday I received a phone call from another Christian relief organisation, to brief me on their plans for aligning Harvest Thanksgiving with actions around the COP 26 climate emergency talks in Glasgow during the first fortnight of November. It was a reminder that we are all in this together. While we might present different profiles to the world, we share the same aims, we possess similar vulnerabilities and gifts. Climate change and Covid 19 are teaching us that, as a race and as a world, we stand and fall together.

Re-reading the account of creation in the opening chapters of Genesis reminds me of how carefully God made the world. How all of life is inter-connected, how beautiful and balanced when it functions as it should. Yet, in my prayers, I am sorely aware of how human sin continues to interfere with that harmony. We have set ourselves against God, against one another, our fellow creatures and the ecosystem. Healing isn't going to come automatically. We must take deliberate steps to reverse the cycle of destruction, which we have created in opposition to God's cycle of grace.

What steps will you take today? Start small and start gently, so that you will not become exhausted and lose heart. But start... And then build and accelerate as you feel able. The time is short and the emergency acute but God is able to multiply our efforts so we may assume that, as we turn away from our selfish concerns and conform to his good intentions, he will accomplish whatever is necessary. To God be the glory!