Am I my brother's keeper?

This past Sunday, the preacher suggested something that I thought was fairly interesting. The sermon focused on the Genisis story of Cain and Able. In that story, there is a point where Cain chooses to kill Able and God asks Cain where Able is. Cain's famos response is "Am I my brother's keeper?"

So Nate (the preacher), pointed out that the hebrew word used for "keeper" is the same word that God used when he commanded Adam to look after the earth. Adam was supposed to "keep" the earth.

Nate suggested that in God's eyes, we are to care for both people and nature equally. We are to "keep" and care for all of God's creation. Or as Strong's Concordance put's it "to watch, observe, guard, preserve" both man and creation.

That's a pretty tall order, but a significant one in my opinion. Am I willing to do this for all of God's creation?