Stewardship involves the humble, often overlooked work of sorting through what has been broken and discarded, imagining how their pieces might fit together, and then fixing what we can. It is tempting to grow impatient with the task of mending and instead simply replace what has worn out. Our technological culture encourages us to see the new as a solution to our problems: throw away what’s broken and buy new; bulldoze old buildings for new construction; move away from fractured family or friendships and make new relationships.

Our task is to tend and steward what we have been given.