August 2, 2022

Genesis 2: 15 (NIV)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Work was mankind’s lot before the fall.*

You have heard that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It is also true that one man’s work is another man’s recreation. There are tasks that I did while at work that never seemed like work, while others were total drudgery. I was thrilled when I became a supervisor and found that I had a staff who didn’t mind when I delegated some of those dreaded chores to them. 

Work is not a curse. God placed his newly created staff in a garden to “work it and take care of it,” not because he wanted Adam to suffer, but to keep him occupied. God could have created a maintenance-free environment for man to live in but he purposely provided a place of employment. There are clues in the story that indicate that the work that Adam did in the Garden of Eden was a far cry from his labor following his banishment: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3: 17) 

Whatever we do to provide for ourselves and our families, I believe that each of us is also called to tend God’s garden. We may have to get up every day and go to a job but we have more important work to do in the garden of the Lord. Such work is not to secure our own salvation but for the sake of those who are still lost. The work we do for the Kingdom should never seem like the drudgery of the curse for “there is true pleasure in the business God calls us to.”*

We were none of us sent into the world to be idle.*