I find it fascinating that, of all the commands God could have given first to Adam and Eve, He commanded them to rule over the earth. In the beginning, before sin entered the world and wrecked their relationship with God, one another, and the earth, Adam and Eve were given the task of car-ing for creation in a way that mirrored God’s own character and abundant love for what He made.

Now, as new creations living out of the redemption accomplished by Christ, we are freed to walk in obedience—including obedience to that first command given to our first parents. Practically, our obedience to God’s command will take different shapes depending on our context and skills. Not all—including myself—have green thumbs. While I love to plant a vegetable garden each year, I always do so with a sense of reliance on the miraculous, rather than my own gardening skills, for what I plant to survive and bear fruit. I am happy to know men and women who have years of experience as well as a God-given knack for tending and cultivating the plants in their care. Our faith-fulness will take different forms in response to the gifts God has given.

Of course, there are differing opinions about the climate crisis, about its cause and severity, and what must be done in response. While I do think it is a problem worth our attention and action, I also think that, regardless of your opinion, the call to steward God’s world comes to each of us. Apart from specific solutions to any crisis, we have been created as God’s image bearers (Gen. 1:27) and given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18).

God’s call, then, comes to all of us regardless of specific gifts and comes prior to any crisis or problem. Where might we begin, then, in walking in obedience to this command? What practices can help us to steward God’s creation faithfully?

Cultivate Wonder

Before all else in our stewardship practices, we must be filled with a deep sense of wonder at the world God has made. It is easy to be overwhelmed by any of God’s commands when we recognize our frailty and sin against the holiness to which God calls us. True obedience, however, comes not from an anxious struggle, but from a joyful delight in who God is and what He has done. Stewarding creation is no different. Before Moses records God’s command to Adam and Eve, he writes in lyrical praise of God’s creation: six days of God’s gracious love manifested in His creating the whole cosmos from nothing.

Every time we look out of our windows or step outside, we can find something that demonstrates the abundance of God and moves us to wonder. John Calvin demonstrates this posture, writing, “It is no small honor that God for our sake has so magnificently adorned the world, in order that we may not only be spectators of this beauteous theater, but also enjoy the multiplied abundance and variety of good things which are represented to us in it.”

Particularly in an age of distraction and virtual experiences, we need to be purposeful about cultivating wonder. Spending time outdoors and taking time to observe the plants and creatures around us will open our eyes to the breadth and depth of creation. And, while many of us know firsthand the awe of seeing new and breathtaking landscapes, we don’t need to travel to stir up our hearts. We only need to pay attention, asking God to help us see our world as He sees it.

Know Your Place

Digital connectivity has given us access to an incredible amount of information about the world. Film offers us intimate experiences of climates, habitats, and animals that we would otherwise never see. And yet, such a breadth can pull our focus away from the particular places in which we live. We need to be careful that our love for creatures and places far away does not replace our love for what is right in front of us.

When we first moved to Australia five years ago, I was amazed at how ignorant I was—there were so many plants and animals, birds especially, that I lacked names for. More than that, their unfamiliarity meant that I didn’t have a clue about what caring for them or cultivating them should look like.

Our calling to steward the creation, like all callings, requires us to grow in knowledge in order to do the work well. While certain tasks involve specialized education, all of us can start with simply naming what is around us. As a newcomer, I am still practicing asking the simple question, “What is this?” as a way to begin in humility.

Learning to name the flora and fauna in our environments will also help us to pay attention. When we do, we’ll learn how the plants change throughout the seasons, what the animal patterns of movement and migration are, and what health and sickness in our ecosystems look like. This kind of knowledge is the foundation of our work as stewards.

Resist Greed

Placed in a garden rich with everything they needed, Adam and Eve nevertheless reached and took what they had not been given. God’s abundance was not enough; they were greedy for more.

Greed continues to distort our relationship to creation. Our landfills, ocean garbage patches, and space debris indict us—both corporations, greedy for the highest profits regardless of the repercussions, and individuals, greedy for more and newer things.

Yet perhaps, if you’re like me, you don’t feel particularly greedy. Greed is something we usually attribute to rich misers, to people who coldly plot how to gain more and more, never content with what they have.

But if we’re honest, green-eyed greed can sneak into each of our hearts, prompting us to desire just one more, just a little more, to add to what we have. When we look at the world primarily in terms of what we can gain, we will always be grasping for more.

If we are to be faithful stewards of creation, we need to resist greed. We need to resist the pressure to keep up with trends in a culture of fast fashion. We also need to resist a miserly attitude that looks for the cheapest products regardless of the environmental impact. Love involves sacrifice, and we are in a culture that is not used to sacrificing financially for the sake of others, let alone for creation.

Resistance, of course, is not simply negative. Positively, it involves practicing gratitude and contentment, and a love that doesn’t have myself at the center. We need God’s grace to change the way we think about our possessions and our money.

Practice Hope

In God’s plan of redemption, humans are not the only beneficiaries. Paul tells us that the whole world groans while it waits for its redemption. When Christ returns, creation will be made new, freed from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:21).

I don’t know exactly what this will look like. I have my own hopes, based on the promises God has given. When my child is stung by a bee, or when our skies are clouded over with smoke from bushfires, I long for a renewed creation in which the lion lies down with the lamb and neither harm nor destruction will afflict the world (Isa. 11:6; 65:25).

Because of God’s promises, we can practice hope. We can trust God to do what He says He will do; and so, in our relationship to creation, we ought to treat it as something that will one day be made new—something of value and delight to God.

And when the problems of pollution or soil erosion or waste accumulation seem larger than we can confront, we should not despair. The preacher of Ecclesiastes lamented that all is vanity, but Christ has redeemed our work from meaninglessness and futility. Instead, we can act in hope, knowing that one day justice will be done, and that whatever we do now will not be done in vain.