This week's readings for our environment day service are  Genesis 1: 29-31 and Matthew 6: 26, 28-29.  To me they speak of the enormity of God's creation - an enormity and complexity that we know in far more depth than those who wrote them.  That gulf in understanding, though, must in turn keep us humble, as we reflect upon the knowledge that still waits to be discovered - it's mindboggling to even try and consider what our descendants will have discovered about the world around us by the time the gap between us and them is the same as between us and the authors of Genesis...

But perhaps even more mindboggling is when Jesus says - in reference to the multitude of the sparrows - 'Are you not of more value than they?'.  In the midst of the incredible beauty, breadth, richness, and wonder of creation - that when looked at in purely clinical terms leaves us in no doubt of our insignificance - reminds us of our infinite value in the eyes of God.  Whoever you are, wherever you've been, whatever you've done God loves you with every part of his being - and to him you are worth everything.

This Sunday, and through the creation narratives of Genesis, we are reminded that value, as amazing as it is, blossoms further still when we fulfil our God given purpose of caring for the world around us - enjoying it, and benefitting from it, of course, but not in ways that diminish or destroy it.  That's the picture painted in Genesis - of human beings as guardians and custodians - living in harmony with both the God who creates and loves them, and the creatures and plants of the world he creates them in.  And, it says, when we find that balance - when we appreciate the gifts around us with the same valuing appreciation that God showers on us - is is very good.