Earth's Cleansing

"The groans of nature in this nether world,

Which heaven has heard for ages, have an end.

Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,

Whose fire was kindled at the prophet's lamp,

The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes:

Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh

Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course

Over a sinful world; and what remains

Of this tempestuous state of human things,

Is merely as the working of a sea

Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest;

For HE, whose car the winds are, and the clouds

The dust that waits upon his sultry march,

When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot,

Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend,

Propitious, in his chariot paved with love;

And what his storms have blasted and defaced

For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair."

Cowper's Task.

Humans have spent thousands of years abusing the earth; stripping her natural resources, dumping trash into her waters and onto the land, and spewing toxins into the air. And through all of our neglect we have the audacity to ask her to continue to serve us. Arrogant humans, taking without any thought of giving back to protect her.

With everything we have put her through is it any wonder that we are experiencing so many natural disasters? Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes, rising up across the earth leaving devastation behind. We are distraught and beaten down in the aftermath at what we have lost, and rightfully so, but perhaps it is the only way for her to try and cleanse away the damages we have created.

Instead of trying to work with the earth and use her natural resources wisely, we take until there is almost nothing left for her to give. Then we cry and curse when she fights back trying to hold onto what she has left. Will we ever listen to the message she is trying to bestow upon us and treat her with the dignity and respect she deserves?

We must stop the spiral we are on if we expect the earth to provide for our children and grandchildren. We need to teach them to value her and protect her so she can replenish the things that will sustain humans in generations to come. The damages are not irreversible if we work together to stop our selfish depletion of her natural resources.

Our efforts to ensure there will be a better and cleaner world for tomorrow need to start now.