It was a very historic day, April 22nd, 1970.  After demonstrations in the streets, auditoriums and classrooms that involved over 20 million Americans on topics from clean air and water to endangered species Earth Day was conceptualized.

Twenty years later Earth Day became global with Canada becoming one of the 141 countries joining in on the movement.  More than 1 billion earth citizens now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civil observance in the world.

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The Earth Day theme for 2016 is: “Trees for the Earth. Let’s Get Planting”. The goal is to plant 7.8 billion trees over the next 5 years and by the time Earth Day has it’s 50th anniversary.  The 7.8 billion trees also represents the estimated number of people to be living on earth by 2020.

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In the Bible there are many verses about the earth and God. We have inherited the earth from God and it is important we take good care of it. As human beings we have messed up many times in the way we have looked after the earth.  Even in the very area where our church is situated the early settlers clear cut the vast hardwood forests, and because it is so sandy in this region the area became a wasteland.

A vast tree replanting program of fast growing pine trees took place that  became known as the Simcoe County Forests.  Although the single specie pine forests will never replace the bio-diversity of the hardwood forests it does help repair some of the damage made.

“Let us be good stewards of the Earth we inherited.  All of us have to share the earth’s fragile ecosystems and precious resources, and each of us has a role to play in preserving them.  If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it” ~Kofi Annan~

We only have one earth which we will pass on to our children and grandchildren.  Please be mindful of the precious resources we use. Let us live like every day is Earth Day.