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By Mike Wilbanks*

“What’s the big deal?” I used to ask myself when environmentalists warned that spotted owls were being endangered. I didn’t care much, to be honest, about habitats that were being decimated by encroaching civilization. These sorts of issues did not seem to be the sort of thing that ought to concern a Christian like me because I was sure that animals and trees were not high on God’s value system. Rather, as a Christian I assumed I should be focused on spiritual issues, since that was what our faith was all about. The physical world was just the temporary vehicle for what was of eternal value… or so I thought.

I’ve now become convinced that the physical world, this earth along with the rest of the “stuff” God made, is not to be looked down on as of little importance. And it is not a temporary stop for us on the way to our spiritual home.

As I study God’s word, I become more convinced that what we do with this world God put us on matters. Not just our souls belong to the Lord. “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” And he likes what he made! This point hit me again today as I read Isaiah. In Isaiah 14, Babylon is personified as “the man who made the world a desert.” (v.17) Certainly, Isaiah uses metaphorical language liberally, but even in metaphor, the point is noteworthy. Babylon’s wickedness is compared to something truly awful­­– stripping the world of the richness and beauty, which God has given it. God condemns Babylon not only for killing people, but also for destroying the land. (Isa 14:20) God gets angry when what he made is not treasured.

This is because the created world is an important medium for the revelation of God’s glory and has a lasting place in his plan. It will not be tossed aside at the end of the age as I had been led to believe. We will not be taken away to an ethereal heaven when we die, so that our spirits can dwell forever with the Lord. No! God will bring heaven to earth and raise us physically from the dead. In that day, “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa 11:9)

Moreover, our redemptio­n– and that of all creation– rests not on a spiritual transaction that occurred in the heavens. It is founded on what God did for us in a human body that was hung up on a piece of wood. Our hope is sure because Jesus was raised, not spiritually, but bodily. How could I not have seen all this before? This world and everything in it matters that much to God … and that’s a big deal!

*Associate Pastor at Santa Barbara Community Church, Santa Barbara, California

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