Jonah 4:4-11 … “Then the Lord said, ‘You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.’” vs.10
The parable of Jonah continues with a conversation between Lord and Jonah about the loss of Jonah’s shade tree, an event that has made Jonah very angry. A contrast is then made between Jonah’s concern for his tree and the Lord’s concern for the 120,000 inhabitants of Nineveh. The whole story captures in a nutshell our human tendency to fixate on the trivial while ignoring the needs of the multitudes. Currently we’re facing a global environmental crisis as temperatures are rapidly rising–and yet some of us are far more concerned about the condition of the greens at our local golf course. We rail about inadequate watering of the fairways in the heat of summer and aren’t even aware that the Amazon rainforest, the “lungs of the world” is facing an ecological disaster. Across the board, in every area of our lives, we major in minors, while being unwilling to deal with those crises which affect the daily needs of millions of people. It could be that the problems seem overwhelming and we’re at a loss about what to do. Some people care deeply, but feel impotent in responding. But as more and more of us begin to focus on those larger issues, there are things that can be done on behalf of our planet, and the “Ninevehs” can be saved.
Thought for the Day: What global issues concern me most?
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