From grizzlies last week to wolves this week . . . have you seen a wolf in the wild?  I have, many times, and am grateful for it.  Many of us know about the controversy that wolves are stirring in some parts of the West.  Some people love them, others hate them. Recently, however, scientists detected a most extraordinary thing:  a wolf sighting in California.  From Wyoming to Idaho to Washington to Oregon to California, this enterprising canine traveled in search of a mate.  Happily, he found one, and is now the leader of a new wolf pack.
     Life really does go on.  Despite everything that some of us might do to suppress it, life, of all kinds, goes on.  We love our lives, we love our world.  I hope we love our God. I also hope that we humans find comity between us and the other animals, predators in particular.  We are not the only beings on this planet.  When God commanded Adam and Eve to "rule" the earth, he was not talking about the rule of harsh and absolute monarchy. He wasn't promoting dictatorial human hegemony.  He was talking about the rule, also enshrined  in many a Native American saying, that people are to care for the planet for the "seventh" generation [and more] to come.
     Historically, many people have turned away from Christianity because they perceived, correctly, that too many Christians have promoted the destruction of the planet in the name of a misinterpreted call to human dominion.  In truth, God called Adam and Eve to cultivate and tend the earth, to contribute to its continuance and sustenance, to leave it in reasonable shape and form for those who would follow them.  After all, interplanetary exploration notwithstanding, it's the only planet we will ever have--and the only one that God will, in this life, give us.
     Why should we destroy what God has made?