Work: A Gift of God
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Genesis 2:15
The week of the Labor Day holiday is a good time to explore what the Bible says about work. And there is no better place to begin than at the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden we see how God not only made Adam (and later Eve) with the mental capacity and the physical ability to work, the Lord made their residence their workplace as well. It was a natural fit. We see evidence of this in the way Adam familiarized himself with the animals of the Garden in giving them names appropriate to their natures. (Gen 2:18-20) He likely did the same with flowers, trees and bushes as he put together plans for trimming, cultivating and harvesting Eden.
When God presented Adam with the perfect coworker He made for him (Gen 2:21-23), there was, no doubt, much they did together as they used their gifts and abilities to tend and keep the Garden the Lord had told Adam to take care of.
When we look back on our first parents in their perfection, we might well envy the joy and delight they must have taken in their work – without the aching muscles and mental fatigue we often feel after work. But scenes from Eden should also move us to give thanks to God that, despite diminished abilities of mind and body and the sin-plagued world we live in, we are still given the gift of work. We still have the opportunity to reach out in love to God and those around us through things we make and do. Still we can praise and thank God for the gifts and abilities He gives us by the way we use them – and with the fruits of our labors.
The world will always have misguided ideas about work, but as Christians we know work has been a gift of God from the very beginning.
Heavenly Father, I thank and praise you for the gifts and abilities you’ve given me – and for the opportunity to use them to Your praise and the benefit of others. Amen.