I recently watched the Japanese film Wood Job, the story of a lazy school-leaver who flunks his exams and can’t get into university, so on a whim heads off on a year-long forestry internship.
I didn’t expect to be moved by this film, but I was. The first time young Hirano travels to the wood sales, he feels a sense of pride at the beautifully tended cedar they are selling. On the way home, with the log having sold for a record price, Hirano asks why they are travelling in a dilapidated old truck when surely his boss could afford a Mercedes. His boss realises Hirano is pushing for a short-term, get-rich scheme that would sell as much of the forest’s stock as possible, rather than carefully tending trees throughout their long lifespan. He snaps back, ‘Don’t be stupid! What will be left for our children?’ And then adds, ‘When the time comes to judge our work, we’ll all be gone.’
This same philosophy needs to guide our own environmental footprint: when the time comes to judge our work, we’ll all be gone. We must put the needs of our children and those directly impacted by climate change and the pillaging of our planet’s resources ahead of our own self-interest.
‘I often think of the heavens your hands have made, and of the moon and stars you put in place,’ says Psalm 8. But does this awareness translate to wise stewardship? As one simple prayer says, ‘Give us the will to cherish this planet and to use its riches for the good and welfare of all.’ Amen!
Christina Tyson
Editor
Jeremiah 2:7 The Message
I brought you to a garden land where you could eat lush fruit. But you barged in and polluted my land, trashed and defiled my dear land.
Heremaia 2:7
Ā, nāku koutou i kawe mai ki te whenua maha ōna hua, ki te kai i ōna hua, i ōna mea papai.