Good news and trees

News from Haiti is rarely good. I recently read a New York Times article that describes the horrific environmental crisis brought on by extreme deforestation. As Haitians (of whom 80% earn less than $2 a day) are desperate for charcoal for heating and cooking, 98% of the nation’s tree cover has been harvested. The result is "a very high rainfall-to-casualties ratio in Haiti -- mudslides, flooding, flash floods, etc.," 

It makes me think that there should be more conversation about an environmental component to the gospel. Trees in Haiti would truly be good news.

In Deuteronomy 20:19-20 Moses gives some interesting instructions about trees in the context of warfare. He says: “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.” (ESV)

Moses is warning his people to consider the long-term environmental impact of our actions, even during a time of war. As one commentator states, Israel was told to avoid razing the landscape during war “because it showed a lack of respect for God’s creation and an infatuation with the harsh and excessive use of destructive power.”

The implications for Haiti seem obvious. Trees would be good news. As would be clean drinking water, and a host of other developement projects. They may be just the thing needed to live out and share the ultimate Good News.