My friend Dave Peterson reminds me that human life began in a garden and ends in a city. God the Master-Gardener put the man created in his image in the Garden of Eden. From the beginning the man had a purpose. God put him there to work the garden and to care for it.
Where is your garden? How gracious of God to give us something to do! What are we doing today? To what has he called us? Are we working and caring for someone, some purpose today. With gratitude for sabbath rest, it is also good to have something to do. Enjoy.
Even in the Garden of Eden, there were rules. I think of this as I run in Hershey Park next to the Buffalo Bayou (which is not exactly the Tigris or Euphrates). Dogs are to be kept on leash and under control. Bicycle riders are to alert walkers and runners of their presence. Are you surprised to hear that people do not think the rules apply to them?
God gets a bad rap these days. How dare God give us rules to live by? Note well that almost all the trees of the garden were fully available to Adam. But God said do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die. This seems straightforward enough. Sometimes God tells us, “No,” to protect us. A friend once said to me, “We do not really break God’s rules, but we may break ourselves over God’s rules.” I remember fighting with our beagle Shiloh over a water moccasin she had found in our yard. “It is my snake,” she barked. “Leave it,” I insisted, for her own good.
As we tend our gardens today, let’s consider carefully. Has God told you, “Yes,” to some request? Go forward fearlessly. Work and care for all that God places before you. Enjoy the fruit of your labors. Also, has God told us, “No,” to something? For our sake, for the sake of others, for God’s sake, let us leave it alone.
