tending the garden

Our legacy of daily work goes back to Adam tending the garden (Eden).  Is work a blessing or a curse?

 

I was thinking today how much our daily work is (or was, if we're retired) a central part of our lives.  We spend the best time of our days working hard to make a living.  We build things, fix things, and provide services working with mind and body.  We generally get paid in dollars to exchange for our effort  but I thing the real exchange is more important than money.  Think back to Adam at the beginning.  God planted him in a garden and gave him a job....  Genesis 2:15 "Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. " In fact, God gave Adam a job before He gave him a wife!  Of course, Adam and Eve couldn't stand perfection and were sent packing from their first job...but work continued. 

Genesis 3: 17b “ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
      In toil you shall eat of it
      All the days of your life. "

It occurred to me that we can have one of two attitudes toward work.  We can "tend the garden of the Lord" or we can view it as a curse.  Well, since we have been redeemed from the curse through Christ, I believe our perspective on work has also been redeemed.  If we view our job as our God-given garden, it can transform our mindset as we remember the blessing it is to labor for the Lord (and in His direct view).

blessings,

Rob Smith