Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. It is also Good Friday. This won't happen again until 2095. I was talking to a longtime friend this morning from my home congregation and thought I'd be clever and send him a message that said, "Happy Earth Day!" The significance of Earth Day falling on Good Friday was something I have been trying to formulate in my mind.

The idea of Earth Day on Easter Sunday (2057) seems to be the clearer connection. Earth Day celebrates all of creation and (albeit falling short of what this means) promotes "restoration" to all the earth. Easter, the Resurrection Sunday, also promotes restoration (albeit rightly). But how is it that Good Friday and Earth Day can connect?

Well, my longtime friend replied to "Happy Earth Day," with,"Happy Tree Hugging Day." It then hit me like a ton of pollen, Good Friday is Tree Hugging Day. Good Friday is Earth Day. Jesus goes to the rugged cross, that unsightly tree, and He grips it to die. Jesus grips the tree to reconcile the whole world to the Father. We know the rest of the story that comes on Sunday, but ponder for today the beautiful image of Christ gripping the cross to reconcile the world to the Father. That is the best gift the Earth has ever received, that is the best medicine for a sick Earth, that is what it means to celebrate creation. The Creator has rescued the creation from sin, decay, and death, all by gripping the tree.

As most of the Earth celebrates the apparent beauty of creation and life I will be sitting in a dark, undecorated, no apparent beauty of a church. Today, though humans lost the tree of life and all its splendor with the rushing rivers, we look to the Tree of Life which has the rushing river flowing from the Creator (John 19:33-34) in all His glory (John 7:37-39).

Happy Earth Day.