Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
Genesis 1: 11:13
On day three God created a dependence between plant life that he was creating and the animal life he would soon create. The lungs of the Earth are the plants and trees that the Lord placed in the earth. They keep us healthy and strong and our air quality up even in urban environments. People tend to divide themselves up into two categories, urban or rural, city folk or country folk. The Bible does not endorse this division but sees urban and rural environments as dependent upon one another. New Jerusalem, an urban environment has in the center of town the tree of life that bears great fruit and whose leaves heal the nations. Revelation 22: 1-2.
The above is not just true of the future New Jerusalem but the current population of Chicago. Urban planners can use trees to control water runoff in an integrated approach with other water conservation strategies. “Researchers at The Morton Arboretum launched the 2010 Tree Census to study our regional urban and community forest. Teams are gathering data on tree quantities, types, sizes ... Results will quantify trees' many ecological services, and will be used to guide decisions about caring for the urban forest to improve our quality of life.”1 The health of our forest is proportional to our own health and well being. “Air pollution in our cities, and even our suburbs, is a serious concern as we enter the twenty first century. ..Trees sequester many pollutants from the atmosphere, including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter of ten microns or less (PM10).”2 “Tree roots draw water from the soil and stabilize it to prevent erosion. …. They store more water during a gentle rainfall than during a two-hour deluge, according to the USDA Forest Service. Their research shows that a medium-size tree can intercept about 2,380 gallons of rainfall per year — about half an Olympic-size “ 3
I am concerned about air pollution but in this case I am only using it as another illustration of how God put together as system that is designed to bless us on earth. On day three God was preparing the give us a healthy environment based the vegetation and forest that surround us. Let me illustrate this from the perspective of delayed and executed judgment by the Lord. In Revelations 7:3 we read. “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” The blessing of the physical environment in this case the trees of the forest are kept for the 'servant of the Lords benefit. In contrast Revelations 8:7 reads “A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”
Dominion over the environment and harmony with the environment are complimentary concepts. Dwelling together with each other while we dwell together with a protected our ecosystem honors God.
I have spoken of air quality primarily in this article but what of the miracle of nutrition found in the food that we eat that comes from vegetation and fruits. What harmony and design made it possible for me to pull a fruit from a tree or a grape from a vine and that nutrients in it our exactly what I need to sustain my life. K.C. Craichy states, Science has identified more than 50 essential nutrients needed by the human body to perform at optimal levels. The body cannot produce any of these nutrients on its own, 4 We are not self sustaining. We are dependent upon the things that God has created for us. We are dependent on day three. Breath deep and eat healthy.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-04/features/ct-sun-garden-0704-census-20100704_1_tree-census-morton-arboretum-usda-forest-service
http://www.americanforests.org/graytogreen/air/
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-04/features/ct-sun-garden-0704-census-20100704_1_tree-census-morton-arboretum-usda-forest-service
http://blog.livingfuel.com/?p=930
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