The Work Beneath Our Feet
It began with a question: What would happen if an entire nation paused to care for the earth on the same day?
And on April 22, 1970, that question became a movement when an estimated 20 million Americans stepped onto college campuses, into city parks, and along busy streets to participate in the first Earth Day. April 22 is still remembered as one of the largest civic demonstrations in United States history, attracting roughly 10% of the nation's population at the time.
The event was the brainchild of U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, an environmentalist who had witnessed the devastation of a massive oil spill off the coast of California. Inspired by the energy of student-led teach-ins, Nelson envisioned a day when environmental concern would move from the margins to the center of public life. He recruited a young organizer, Denis Hayes, and together they mobilized communities across the country.
Impressively, the result grew into more than a single day of action. Within a few short years, the United States Environmental Protection Agency was established, and landmark legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act reshaped how the nation understood its responsibility to the natural world.
What began as a national movement soon became global. Today, Earth Day is observed by more than a billion people across nearly every country, a shared reminder that the care of creation is both a local responsibility and a worldwide calling.
This past Saturday, that calling was close to home when members of Cedar Creek Church joined Scout troops, other congregations, and the City of Sherwood in Cannery Square for the annual spring cleanup known as "Trashpalooza." Wearing Cedar Creek Church T-shirts and carrying trash pickers, our group spread out in the neighborhood across from Archer Glen Elementary School. And while the sidewalks were remarkably clean, there is something meaningful about bending down to lift a piece of discarded plastic or a crumpled can. It is an act that says, This place matters. ... The spaces we share are worth tending. ... We belong to one another. ... We belong to the world God has made.
Scripture has been telling that story from the very beginning. In Genesis 2, humanity is placed in the garden “to work it and take care of it." The language is active and enduring. Care for creation is not an occasional gesture; it is a way of life. It is part of what it means to bear the image of a Creator who delights in what has been made.
And the Apostle Paul echoes that same vision in Romans 8, where he writes that creation itself is waiting -- groaning -- for renewal. The work of God in Christ is not limited to human hearts; it extends outward, touching all that God has called good.
Earth Day invites us to remember something we already know: small actions matter. Collective action matters. Faithfulness in the ordinary matters.
As you move through this week, consider a simple step: Pause and notice the spaces you inhabit. Offer a quiet prayer of gratitude for the beauty around you. Care for one small corner of creation: your yard, your street, your workplace, your church.
Stewardship is often more about daily faithfulness than grand gestures or global movements. It is about recognizing that the world we have been given is not merely a place we pass through, but a gift we are called to tend. And in that tending, we reflect the heart of the One who made it -- and called it good.