Added: 07/28/2006 |
The Virtues Derived From a Love of God's WondersThe following article was not written by a Christian, but it was written by someone who interacts with many Christians. The writer of the following article has served as secretary for an interfaith group in California. She has found the Christians in her group to be caring and respectful of God's wonders. Her observations served as the basis for the following article.
What is a caring attitude? A caring person handles all of God's wonders with control and gentleness. A caring person does his or her best to treat each of God's wonders with kindness. For example, if a caring person must care for the family pet, then that person makes a point of performing all of the jobs that deliver the proper care to that pet.
Caring is a way to demonstrate Christian love. Kindness also shows love towards God's wonders. What is kindness? Kindness entails showing concern for any and all of God's wonders. A Christian appreciates the wonder inherent in everything within God's creation.
God created man to know Him and to worship Him. Christians want to show their love for God; they want to worship God. Christians can also show their love by praying to God and by exhibiting love towards all of God's wonders. Caring and kindness towards all of God's creatures demonstrates love for God.
Church signs beckon people to come worship. Church signs are, therefore, a call to others to show respect and reverence for God's wonders. Church leaders should recognize the interdependence of love for God and love for nature.
Mohandas Gandhi understood that love for God should be reflected in a love for nature. Gandhi never thought about becoming a tree sitter, but he was certainly a tree lover. Gandhi wanted his grandson to see trees as representative of God's wonders. Therefore, he asked his grandson to conserve the products made from trees.
Gandhi's message to his grandson came through loud and clear one night, when the grandson was staying at Gandhi's. Arun wanted to replace an old and short pencil with a new and longer one.
Gandhi told his grandson Arun that he had to use-up every bit of lead in his school pencil. Arun had to use that pencil after it had become just a tiny stub. Gandhi felt that Arun must learn to value all of the things created by God.
Arun grew up with a deep respect for God's wonders. Today Arun gives talks about the importance of our environment. Arun encourages those who hear his talk to be caring and kind towards all that God has created.
Arun's message is meant to inspire action. He often quotes his famous grandfather during his talk. He encourages all of those in the audience to "Be the change that you seek."
Arun's message is not about the attainment of Christian virtues. Yet someone who respects all of God's wonders would almost certainly manage to acquire a caring and kind attitude. Such a person would most assuredly learn to be loving, respectful and reverent.
So Mohandas Gandhi, a beloved prophet in India, has helped the world to better understand the importance of some basic Christian virtues. Perhaps one could add that amazing fact to the long list of God's many wonders. Perhaps the most wonderful thing of all is God's ability to reach all of his creatures, even those in the smallest villages of India.
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