From the staff of Dynamic Steward
Summary: What do Jesus’ lessons from nature teach us about the way He cares for His creation? This study links Christ’s caring for the environment to His disciples.
It is interesting to reflect on Jesus and His references to nature, especially as we acknowledge His role as Creator of our world. This study will look at several lessons Jesus drew from nature, or His environment, during His brief stay on earth. As we study, may we gain new insights into our relationship to and our responsibility for His creation.
1. The Living Water
Read: John 4:13-14; 7:37-38; Exodus 17:6; Isaiah 44:2-4
Jesus chooses this critical element of life when He refers to Himself as the Source of Living Water. As recorded in Leviticus, Moses strikes the ?rock? and God pours out the refreshing, life-sustaining liquid. This Scriptural passage communicates God’s ability to provide for His children.
As Christian stewards and environmentalists, how can we cooperate with God and minister to the peoples of the world by contributing to such an essential need?
2. The Bread of Life
Read: John 6:35; 48; 51
Bread is an essential part of much of the world’s basic food supply. Jesus acknowledges this when He states: ?I am the Bread of Life? (Jn 6:48). Christ broke bread with His disciples. He shared a little lad’s lunch of loaves and fishes and fed thousands of people on at least two occasions, as recorded in Scripture. And the bread was miraculously extended because Jesus blessed it.
In what practical ways can we help extend Jesus’ breaking of bread and His expanding blessing to the world? Think of ways, first, within your own family, then within your own community, and finally, the world.
3. The fifth sparrow
Read: Matthew 10:29 and Luke 12:6
In the book of Matthew Jesus tells us that two sparrows were sold for a farthing. By comparison, in Luke’s passage, Christ tells us that five sparrows could be purchased for two farthings. Not much for the fragile little creatures! But with two farthings, one sparrow was thrown in free!
What makes us stop and truly consider is what Jesus goes on to say about these tiny birds: ?Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.?
If God cares so much for His creation that He notices one apparently insignificant sparrow, how does He care about creation in its entirety?
God asks us to care with Him—to begin where we are, doing what we can. As with Peter and John at the gate Beautiful, we cannot give what we don’t possess, but we can respond with them, ?What I have I give you? (Ac 3:6).
