If you are a teenager, the word "Grounded!" is not welcome. It probably refers to a loss of liberty associated with misbehavior. If you were a lightning bolt the word grounded might discourage you because it represents the harmless direction of your great power into the earth. There is a very positive association with the ground and people, however. Ever since Adam and Eve were planted in the Garden of Eden we have had a close relationship with the land. Adam's first job was to tend the garden and after he and Eve stepped away from obedience they still had a close relationship with the ground...The Garden had provided the fruit they needed to live without work on their part. After sin entered the picture the land still would produce their food, but they would have to work the land "by the sweat of your brow" [Genesis 3:19] In fact, the Bible says that the land, itself, was cursed as a result of their sin.
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Ever since then man has had a close, dependent relationship with the ground. A friend recently told me that there seem to be few farmers who are atheists. When you depend on the land for your living you are aware of God's creation and the limits of your personal strength. In modern day America few of us realize the close relationship we have with the land. Our food seems to come from large box stores and groceries and someone else has had to work the land to produce the food. But until the recent past it was the need for a personal plot of land to support family that drove millions to cross oceans or clear jungles or terrace places on mountain sides. Even today, in our man-centered, hectic lives, if we head to the country...to the place of bigger skies...our thoughts tend to move upward to the Lord. There is something about the land that helps us connect and reconnect with the One who planted us in a garden and bound us to work the ground that comes from renewing that association.
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Psalm 16:6 The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance!
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blessings,
Rob Smith
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