Last week my wife Heyley and I went to a friends' place for dinner. This was the first time I visited him since he moved to his new home. Before dinner time, he showed me around his garden, of which he was so proud. I saw quite a lot of vegetables were planted in the garden, and this was of much joy to his wife and family.
Having congratulated him, he explained his concern that there were countless ants in his garden soil. He took me to a corner of the garden and pointed out to me. He pointed and it was then I saw ants lined up and moving relentlessly. My friend told me he doesn't know where the ants coming from or where they are going. But, even I could see that it didn't look seeing those ants all over the vegetables as he tried to picked them from the garden.
He had tried many methods to get rid of those unwelcome visitors, but nothing was effective. He bought ant sand and spread it around the garden to build a "wall". However, after heavy rain, the ants came back to the garden, as the "wall" was destroyed by the water. He tried insect killer spray, but is afraid the ants will carry the spray to the vegetables for his family's consumption. One of his neighbours advised him to kill the ants by hot boiling water, as the water will not be harmful to human beings. But my friend didn't take this advice as he felt it was too cruel a manner to kill the ants. He considered that ants have their own purpose (their own way to live) as long as it didn't affect his garden.
After dinner on my way home, I was lost in thinking about my friend saying "the ants have their own way to live, even though it doesn't affect his garden." Yes, we as human beings have control of the earth, but there are other creatures who are also living on this earth as well.
When God created His World in seven days, many creatures were created as well as human beings. This earth is for all the creatures, but human beings took dominion of all that was in the earth and for their own interests.
We see this in the way human being needs forest timbers. But those forests provide the living conditions for other created creatures. We have witnessed areas that have been deforested, then when the heavy rains come, the trees are no longer there to protect that environment.
Human build huge dams to generate electricity with power stations. but the environmental lobby point out the blocked rivers when dry with river bank destruction. The creatures that lived in that water lost their home and gradually die out. In turn, the environmentalists note the quality of drinkable water is affected.
Human use machinery for their technologies, countless factories built and exhaust gasses discharged into the atmosphere. The creatures of the air are affected. Pollution enters our very existence and who knows what diseases and cancers all that contributes.
Although we humans have the highest intelligence (as it were) of all created being upon the face of the earth, there is a Genesis clarion call to treat God's creation justly and as trustworthy custodians.
All this is a gift from God and it is so precious. Only when something is lost do any of us realise how special it was. Abuse comes in many forms.
Yes, my friend is still trying to grow his vegetables and at the same time, keep those ants at bay. That's the dilemma "all of us" have from the micro to the macro.
Oscar Duan is from China, he has an accountancy degree from University of Hertfordshire (UH) International campus in Malaysia, and has undertaken further accountancy studies in Australia for accreditation here. He is married to Heyley.
Oscar Duan's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/oscar-duan.html