Senator Dennis Guth gave a speech Friday on the floor of the Iowa Senate that talked about two significant days in the month of April.
“The first one is Earth Day,” Guth said. “Largely promoted by naturalists that celebrate nature and man’s unique and moral responsibility to protect it. This causes me to pause and kind of wonder, to the naturalists, nature is all there is — physical things in motion governed by physics and chemistry.
“If that is what you believe, how can there be any moral obligations of any kind? How can any living thing have any obligation to protect another? The locust may take away all that they can and leave nothing for the boll weevil that comes after. Well, that’s how Darwinism works — the fitter critter wins.
“Without God there is no obligation of man toward mother nature. However, the folks that enjoy Earth Day do have one thing right; man is different from the rest of the animal world. Humans are special and do have responsibility for this world. Not because of mother nature, but because of Father God, who created humans in His image.
“Humans are good, but they are also guilty of disobedience to their Creator. This uniqueness about man created in God’s image is permanent. It cannot be removed, but it is covered with the stain of sin. That is why we have the second special day this month — Easter.
“Easter is when we celebrate what God did for us. Even though we disobeyed Him, He loves us. He loves us so much that He was willing to give the most precious thing in the universe to remove the stain of our own shortcomings. All of us have sinned and fall short of God’s intentions, yet He sent His one and only Son to live among us and teach us about God.
“Even that was not enough. We all deserve punishment for our disobedience in not just the big things but the little ones as well. Jesus once said ‘There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.’ Matthew 10:26.
“Jesus voluntarily offered His life up on the cross. He gave us a gift of immeasureable value. If we recognize that we have lived outside of God’s intention for us and we choose to turn away from such disobedience, we claim that gift for ourselves. If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and He chose to die in our place, we can decide to trust Him with our future.
“When we place our trust in Him and stop trying to run our lives ourselves, He will not only forgive us for our past but will guide our future. That is the hope of Easter — guidance now and eternity with God.
“Happy Easter.”
