If you are in Christ, you can rest in the fact that Jesus died on the cross for every transgression you have ever committed or ever will commit. Yet, God has also called you to live a holy life, striving to honor him in all things. Believers should never be okay with sin but rather need to turn away from it with repentant hearts, walking in the newness of life they have been given by God’s grace through the perfect work and sacrifice of their Lord Jesus Christ

My husband and I had the opportunity to visit the South Island of New Zealand recently, and one of the first things we noticed as we traveled around the stunning countryside was a beautiful, yellow-flowering plant. And it’s everywhere. Its official name is Cytisus scoparius, and it is commonly called broom, Scotch broom, or English broom. We went on an all-day bike ride and even took some photos of the yellow flowers along the trail.

A few days later, we took a guided bus/boat trip to magnificent Milford Sound, and the bus driver shared a lot of interesting details about the non-indigenous plants and animals that were brought to the islands by humans. We learned that the broom plant was actually brought in from England to help settlers make hedges as there were no indigenous trees on the islands, and people needed a way to make fences without lumber. We also learned that the only mammals that inhabited New Zealand before humans arrived were bats. Thus, New Zealand had a lot of birds, but no trees or other mammals besides bats.

Invasive species are wreaking havoc on the natural habitat of New Zealand.

The guide also informed us that the yellow flowers my husband and I had previously admired are actually a serious problem for New Zealand. Broom is an invasive species that is choking out the native plant life of the islands and affecting the livestock industry and new tree plantings for forestry. It is causing immense destruction to the natural habitat, which the country is seeking to mitigate through various means.

We also discovered that plants weren’t the only invasive species brought to the islands. Over the years people also imported animals for their fur that weren’t native to the land, such as rabbits and possums, and rats found their way from boats onto land as well. Settlers even populated the islands with an animal called the stoat in order to keep down the rabbit population when it got out of hand.

And what happened from all these well-meaning attempts to make life better in New Zealand by introducing non-native animals? The stoats (singled out by the tour guide as an especially destructive bird predator), rats, cats, weasels, possums, ferrets, and even dogs have been killing off many of the native birds of New Zealand, including the endangered flightless Kiwi.

According to a 1997 New Zealand Ministry of Environment report, over 40 of the endemic bird species have become extinct during the period of human settlement up to 1994.

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