“Life After People,” or “The Hanging Gardens of NYC”

Look around you – literally look up from your computer and examine your surroundings.  You’re likely indoors (outside?  BRR!), possibly at work, home, or at a coffeehouse.  If you can see other people, watch how they are using the space.  Think about the intent of the builder – what was this space designed for?

Now imagine your space with no people at all.  Imagine it goes a week without a soul walking in – what has happened?  Any plants that need watering?  Next, imagine what would happen if it was 1 month and no one had entered the space… 2 months… 6 months… a year… 10 years… 100 years… 1000 years!

That is the premise of an intriguing (and slightly silly) History Channel documentary, Life After People. Without dealing with the question of how every human on earth disappears (has someone from Dallas Theological Seminary or the Left Behind books become a producer at the History Channel?!?) they look at the effects of planet earth reclaiming the spaces we’ve designed for human civilization.  First the tunnels and subways would fill with seawater, next, power stations would begin to shut down…over time, wild and domesticated animals would reclaim downtown spaces – turning each crumbling high rise into a vertical jungle.  If zoo animals escaped their pens – there could be tigers and rhinoceros roaming the streets of NYC or the great Midwestern plains.  Without humanity, the world would look very different.

Isaiah takes a stab at this too – as he foretells the fall of the mighty Babylonian Empire.  At the time, the most prominent empire on the planet, Isaiah doesn’t even blink as he portrays the violent overthrow of the fortified capital and the Babylonian region.

20 Babylon will never be inhabited again.

It will remain empty for generation after generation.

Nomads will refuse to camp there,

and shepherds will not bed down their sheep.

21 Desert animals will move into the ruined city,

and the houses will be haunted by howling creatures.

Owls will live among the ruins,

and wild goats will go there to dance.

22 Hyenas will howl in its fortresses,

and jackals will make dens in its luxurious palaces.

Babylon’s days are numbered;

its time of destruction will soon arrive.

We tend to assume that the world as it is today is a “given,” when in fact we are always just a few short hours away from a complete natural disaster waiting to overtake us – bringing us “back to nature,” (as if we could ever leave it).  

Babylon was known for its power and might – conquering even the mighty power of nature with its hanging gardens, and hydro-power.  But even before the time of Christ the city had been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self.  The gardens had overrun the city, and now plants once again controlled the once-powerful city.

The next time you find yourself walking in a major metropolis, or driving down a freeway, look around and consider for a moment “life after people,” and

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