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Good morning. It was a sunny morning, and I took a walk on the beautiful Portstewart strand on Northern Ireland’s North coast. But instead of the delicious sky and lapping waves, my attention was drawn to the enormous skeleton, half-wrapped in decomposing flesh, which lay along the shoreline.
My first thought was of dinosaurs… but then I began to think a little more rationally. Just because it reminded me of a dinosaur didn’t mean it WAS one. I’m used to seeing dinosaur skeletons in museums, whereas living creatures, mammals, such as the minke whale before me, tend to be seen fully clothed in skin and muscle. 
Extinction of life was brought home to me. That such a large creature had met its end and been washed ashore at my feet… alongside the limpets and clams, the seaweed and jellyfish. How the mighty fall!
I thought of the planet and of the incredible variety its life offers in scale and colour and people. And I thought too of the different ways in which we have used creation; how we have exploited its resources without at times giving the slightest thought to how those resources might be renewed; how human selfishness and greed are often the only motivation of how we have treat creation.
Psalm 24 begins the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,the world, and those who live in it.  It is not simply ours to do as we wish with it,

Creator of Life, open our eyes and hearts to see how we can be complicit in misusing your creation. Inspire us to study, learn and act, to honour you with true care for creation and for all your creatures. Liberate us all from this bondage to decay and bring us into the freedom and glory of the children of God.  Amen