Late last week, we took a road trip to Manning Park for a walk along the Skagit River Trail. We needed some fresh air, some mountain time, and a touch of snow (but not on our streets or driveway). It’s just over an hour’s drive away, so it’s relatively handy.

I find that when I get out in nature, it often clears my head (as well as my lungs) and helps me “see and hear” God more easily. I took this shot of a nearby cliff face from where we parked. Even through the haze, it’s beautiful.

That mountain has stood there for a long time. It looks as if it will still stand there for a long time. Yet the face is slowly changing. Erosion and rockslides are subtly recarving the face. We live in an area prone to earthquakes and with active volcanoes; either could totally transform the mountain.

Even the things we consider rock solid don’t last forever. We live in a broken world that is destined for destruction. The day will come when even the mountains and the oceans will burn up.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”  2 Peter 3:10

If everything will be destroyed, why bother trying to preserve any of it? Humankind was put on this little blue planet, third from the sun, to steward it.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15

We have been appointed to a God-given task to steward a part of His kingdom. Its eventual disposition is in the hands of the owner, but in the interim, we manage it until His return. 

I’m reminded of the parable of the talents (or minas) where the master gives the servants responsibility for a certain sum, and there is an accounting when he returns. (Matthew 25:14–30, Luke 19:11–27)

How well will we fare when the master returns and we face a review of our stewardship? Not well in general.

I’m not suggesting we all become earth worshippers; that’s a sin. Simply that we could all make small changes to be better stewards.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever compared our stewardship to those parables before?

Be blessed

Kevin

Getting older and the hope of glory

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All contents, “Gleanings From the Word” and “Experience an Extraordinary God in Ordinary Life,” are © 2001, 2026 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin, “Gleanings From the Word.”

Unless otherwise noted, “Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved

From Gleanings From The Word (Kevin Corbin, 2001– ), a Scripture-based devotional work.

# Right Belief Must Become Right Living