I read a summary of a session today at the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students Symposium on Climate Change. A Rocha’s Vinoth Ramachandra spoke about the hope we have in a coming renewal of creation. It is this hope, and related implications, that helps drive our own excitement to start Santa Barbara A Rocha. I mention this because I spent a day doing something that I suspect might seem inconsequential at first glance.

I spent today working as a project assistant for an ecologist conducting a portion of a wetland survey. We spent six hours studying and collecting data related to geology, botany, and hydrology in an area that provides seasonally sensitive habitat for birds, amphibians, reptiles and a few small mammals. What began as a lengthy series of data collection sequences such as gps data, plant identification and count in 10 meter squares, and an analysis of the types of soil located at each data point turned into a narrative about creation. The process was time consuming and tedious. Initially I wondered how much my effort of studying and recording such exact details mattered, but as our time progressed I began to understand the narrarive that I was living. Creation was being revealed in its glorious detail. By listening, studying, and asking questions I was learning about the Creator’s work in our natural world and therefore learning to appreciate more about Him and the gift our environment is to all of creation. I began to see the connections between our responsibility to steward these resources and the worship of our Creator as we worked to provide information that will help public and private agencies make decisions on how best to balance conserving habitat with development. I left the site tired, but with the realization that partaking in conservation is a reflection of our hope for a coming renewal of all creation which is currently under our collective watch and care.