A People of the Creator

I remember not too long ago being asked, “What’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen?” Images flashed through my mind. Bright turquoise waters in Belize. Lush green hills in Chiang Mai. Radiant orange sunsets in Florence. One after another, memories surfaced—colors, textures, scents, and flavors, all bits and pieces of the most beautiful places I’ve seen.

What about you? What’s the most beautiful place you’ve seen? Maybe it’s the mountains of the Andes rising above the clouds, or the way the sun breaks through the canopy in a rainforest. Perhaps it’s the tranquility of a desert at dawn, or the moment you stood at the edge of a canyon and felt impossibly small. Maybe it’s somewhere you’ve been once, or a place you return to again and again.

There’s something about these moments that feels sacred, as if we are soaking up the presence of God. We’re encountering a Creator who made all of this—and made it beautiful, not just functional. Every ecosystem, every species, every sunset points back to Him.

Creation Under Strain

As my mind dances through memories of sunset-painted skies and crystal waters, here is the painful reality.

I think about the beaches of Hawai’i, and I remember reading that coral reefs worldwide are dying at an alarming rate—bleached white by warming oceans, choked by pollution. I think about a documentary I watched years ago, images I still can’t shake of sea turtles with plastic straws lodged in their nostrils, seabirds with stomachs full of bottle caps, ducks coated in thick black oil struggling to move and to breathe, entire patches of ocean turned into floating garbage dumps.

These aren’t just tragedies or sad news headlines. They’re harm to what God created.

Our Relationship With Creation

So is this just an environmental issue, or is it a theological one? For Adventists especially, I think it has to be both. We sing “This Is My Father’s World,” we proclaim the first angel’s message calling all to worship the Creator, and we worship on the seventh day as a memorial of God’s creative power. We can’t separate our belief in a Creator God from our responsibility to His creation.

God didn’t just create the world and step back. Scripture shows us a God who deeply cares for what He made. He saw everything He created and called it “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Matthew 10:29 tells us that God knows when even a sparrow falls to the ground. And after the Flood, God made a covenant not just with humanity but with every living creature (see Gen. 9:9, 10). This is a God whose heart is invested in His creation.

Further, God’s care for His creatures extends to the environments that sustain them. Scripture shows God actively watering the cedars, causing grass to grow, and sustaining entire ecosystems (see Ps. 104:14-16). And He invited humanity to partner with Him in that care.

We can’t separate our belief in a Creator God from our responsibility to His creation.

In the Garden of Eden, God’s first command to Adam was to care for creation. Genesis 2:15 says God placed Adam in the garden “to tend and keep it.” Stewardship was part of the original design, before sin, before the Fall. This is how humanity was meant to relate to God’s creation.

Preparing for Eternity

If we believe in a new earth—a restored creation where we’ll dwell with God forever—wouldn’t that same call to stewardship apply there, too? The new earth is the fulfillment of God’s original design in Eden. Therefore, we’re given an opportunity now to practice for what eternity will look like.

Ellen White wrote that true education “has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. . . . It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.”[*] Learning to care for creation now is preparation for the world to come.

Let’s go further. God demonstrates His character in how He cares for His creation. If we’re going to be the kind of people who care for the New Earth, we need to learn that same care now. When we choose to care for creation today, even when it’s inconvenient or seems insignificant, we reflect the character of the Creator, learning now the habits of stewardship that will define life in His restored kingdom.

Stewardship in Action

So what does this look like in practice? The truth is it looks different for each of us.

For some communities, environmental degradation isn’t abstract or theoretical; it’s devastatingly real. Homes are flooding, crops are failing, water sources are drying up or becoming polluted. For these communities, caring for creation is often about survival, about fighting for their right to exist in places their families have lived for generations.

For others of us, the crisis feels distant. We have the luxury of distance, of resources, of options. And with that comes a different kind of responsibility.

But regardless of where we find ourselves, stewardship is possible. It doesn’t require wealth or going to extremes. It’s about intentionality with what we have, where we are.

Maybe it’s choosing to walk or bike when you can or advocating for public transportation in your city. Maybe it’s reducing plastic use, composting food waste, or supporting local farmers. Maybe it’s planting trees in your community or teaching your children to respect and care for the natural world. Maybe it’s speaking up when policies threaten God’s creation or supporting organizations working to protect vulnerable ecosystems and communities. For some it’s simply being more mindful about consumption, about waste, about the small daily choices that add up.

The point isn’t perfection. It’s about caring faithfully for what God has entrusted to us, whether it’s His people or His creation.

Remember that beautiful place you thought of at the beginning? The turquoise waters, the mountain peaks, the forest path that felt sacred?

What if caring for those places—and all the places like them around the world—is one of the most Adventist things we can do? What if every time we choose stewardship over convenience, every time we speak up for creation, every time we honor what God has made, we’re not only developing the godly character we’ll need for eternity, but also bearing witness to the Creator we worship?

[*] Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1903), p. 13.