Written by Susan Disston Thursday, 08 March 2012 00:00

If you’ve ever been in a jam while at your computer, you’ve probably hit the Esc key or pounded it hoping for a quick fix to whatever the problem is. The Esc key is a shortcut that stops, quits, cancels, exits, or aborts the situation so that you can start over. Fresh.

Coincidentally, the word eschatology also begins with Esc. Eschatology in the Christian tradition is the study of the end times and of our ultimate destiny: a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65-66). A destiny where we start over. Fresh.

Christopher Wright wrote about this place from the Isaiah passage—“joyful, free from grief and tears, life-fulfilling, with guaranteed work satisfaction, free from the curse of frustrated labor, and environmentally safe” It is a vision that pus most New Age dreams in the shade.” The Mission of God, p. 408.

It is this vision that Wright says should propel the Christian toward creation care: that it is both humanity and the creation itself that will be caught up and made new by God. Wright added, “It follows then, from a creational and eschatological perspective, that ecological care and action is a dimension of our mission inasmuch as it is a dimension of restoring the proper status and responsibility of our humanity. It is to behave as we were originally created to and as we will one day be fully redeemed for.” p. 414.

Some Christians respond to creation care as “just another fad.” When they dismiss the so-called fad, they are metaphorically hitting the Esc key, the one that stops, quits, cancels,... rather than connecting the beginning of God’s story with the end and seeing the earth—creation—as a vital part of what God has provided to humanity for blessing.

For more of Christopher Wright on creation care,  go to CreationCare.org.

Susan Disston is the assistant dean of curriculum and assessment at Biblical Seminary. She teaches project courses in the doctor of ministry program and in ESLPLUS. http://www.biblical.edu/index.php/adjunct-faculty-theology