We are best able to bear witness to God when we act from a place of love, and acting on climate is no exception. In fact, acting on climate is one of the best ways to embody love for our neighbor and for God’s creation. The Bible is emphatic about the importance of loving people, explaining that we are to love because God first loved us. We are also told that Jesus was sent precisely because God loved the world, and it’s about time we change our paradigm to recognize that God’s love for the world means that He cherishes not only people, but also His creation. This is a truly transformational thing to begin to grasp, and even without fully comprehending the majesty of God’s love, we can begin to emulate it as we have been called to do. This means loving as an extension of our testament to the goodness of God by appealing to the goodness in others because we recognize that they are beloved image bearers. It also means understanding that in order to love our neighbor as ourselves, we have to also love creation. God has gifted us with an inextricable connection to the earth, and that means that ignoring one element inherently compromises the other; we cannot profess to love others while simultaneously allowing their homes and their health to be devastated by climate related disasters.
God’s magnanimous nature means that when we feel defeated, we can run to Him and find rest in His love, a promise that we can cling to invariably. But perhaps most importantly, embodying love through climate action means working towards building the Kingdom of God in which the fullness of His love reigns over everything else and allows us to be returned to our oneness with God, with each other, and with creation. With God’s love all things are possible, and the best part is that we get to participate in bringing the vision of restoration to fruition by contributing to climate action.
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Isadora Koch is a 2020-2021 YECA Climate Leadership Fellow.
