Gardening

God put Adam in the garden to “work it and take care of it.” That was a part of human’s job description. The not-alone God says,

“Let us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness, so that they may rule...”

Then God says, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Human was created to rule over the earth and subdue it. So let’s take a minute to hash this out.

The Hebrew word translated “rule” means to actively partner with God in taking the world somewhere. And the word subdue doesn’t mean to exploit or harm the earth. It means to harness the raw materials that make up the planet, all that pent-up potentiality, and make something beautiful.

We were created to work. But not just any kind of work. To work for human flourishing. To partner with God to make a garden-like world in which humans can thrive and God can walk with his people in the cool of the day. What the Hebrews called shalom. Contrary to the mantra of the day, we do not work to live. In God’s economy, we live to work.

We need to recapture a theology of vocation. The word vocation comes from a Latin word meaning “calling.” I believe there is a calling on every person’s life to partner with God in their corner of the garden and to work for human flourishing.

I believe God calls architects and artists and accountants and stay-at-home moms and baristas and mortgage brokers — and on down the list. We need the full spectrum of vocations for Eden — not just “spiritual” vocations (whatever that means), but every human on the planet doing what God made them to do.

The first thing God does with Adam is put him in the garden to “work it and take care of it.”

Everybody needs a gardening project.

Put another way, everybody needs to find a calling in life. A sense of, “This is what I was put on earth to do. This is what I’m good at. This is what I was made for. This is my Eden, my corner of the earth to rule over.”

What’s your calling? What’s your gardening project?