Two articles about caring for the earth in the most recent issue of Christianity Today...

First, an interview by Andy Crouch with Eugene Peterson and Peter Harris, "The Joyful Environmentalists." It's not yet available online (I'll try to remember to post a link when it is), but for now, Peter Harris on a specifically Christian care for the earth:

We do many of the same things as do secular environmental organizations, but we do them for very different reasons... If... you do what you do because you believe it pleases the living God, who is the Creator and whose handiwork this is, your perspective is very different. I don't think there is any guarantee we will save the planet... But I do believe it gives God tremendous pleasure when his people do what they were created to do, which is care for what he has made.

Second, an article by Matthew Dickerson, "Who Gets Left Behind?" In response to Harold Camping's belief that "the rapture" would take place a few weeks back (I wrote about it then, "Would You Rather Be Left Behind?"), Dickerson reexamines the Biblical texts often used to support an idea that some people will be whisked away from planet earth into the heavenly realms. Instead, he writes:

The entire passage (Matthew 24:37-39) strongly suggests that the ones "left behind" in Jesus' description of the Second Coming, will not be the wicked ones but the followers of God. They are rewarded by being left behind to enjoy, as embodied creatures, God's new kingdom. The wicked are "taken away," losing the chance to experience the new creation.

Read the rest of the article here. I for one am inspired to l consider today what I can do today to delight in God's good creation, to participate in God's work, to get ready to be left behind.