By Nelet Kok

 

I’m not sure when we became so entitled.
 
We deserve. We can. We have.
I just watched a short video on the protection of the sea turtle in Watamu, on the Kenyan coast. The eggs are laid and take two months to hatch. It is said that only one in a thousand will survive into adulthood.
 
The sea turtle is being hunted on the Kenyan coast for meat and oil, and apparently, it serves as an aphrodisiac.
 
We all live in this beautiful, quite amazing eco -system that God created. Where he provided us with oxygen, food, plants, water, fish – all so wonderfully made. Each link, each animal, organism or specie contributes to the wellbeing, wholeness and functioning of this Godly eco-system.
 
God left this all to us and said that we should be responsible for it (Genesis 1:26 – 28). Do we deserve this responsibility? Do we deserve this beautiful paradise that we are slowly filling with plastic, killing and hunting down?
 
Our lives, our gifts and our abilities are grace.
 
It’s grace.
Not given because we deserve it, but given because God loved us so much.
So much that He created man in His image.
When did we decide that living on the planet that God gave us, leaves us with no responsibility towards it?
No worries. I can do as I please.
 
No responsibility to help other.
To be kind to others.
To not hide behind walls because the truth is a little too much in my face.
 
That quirky thing that you do or the way you laugh or how you so deeply care, that’s God.
You were made in His image.
 
Don’t make this delightful earth miss out on you, because you are scared or worried or think that you’re not good enough.