Dress the Garden
Standard; Ge 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Sometimes I think we forget just how special we are to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everything else in creation gets a “let there be” or “let the earth or waters bring forth” But we get, “the Lord God formed man.”
The word formed means “squeezed or molded.” He indeed is literally the Potter and we indeed are literally the clay!
We get the very hands of God molding us, shaping us, squeezing us into what we call “man.” Just pause and think for a moment what all went into that first man. The DNA alone is mind boggling! 24 miles of DNA in your body and we've only been able to decipher about 2.4 miles of it. And what about the function of the brain? Several thousand miles of 100 billion interconnected nerve cells calling the shots.
Scientists have counted over 500 different liver functions. :
In 1 square inch of skin there lies 4 yards of nerve fibers, 1300 nerve cells, 100 sweat glands, 3 million cells, and 3 yards of blood vessels. :
There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being.In a year, a person`s heart beats 40,000,000 times.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.
Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for :your heart.
Every person has a unique tongue print.
The average human body contains enough: Sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog,
Carbon to make 900 pencils,
Potassium to fire :a toy cannon,
Fat to make 7 bars of soap,
Phosphorus to make :2,200 matchheads,
and enough Water to fill a ten-gallon tank.
We have a a whole pharmacy within us. We can create any drug inside us.
Then look what He does in the reproductive act. We all start out as this single cell and all of this stuff is miraculously continued....and somehow, He sets it up, so that no two persons are exactly alike. Who but God could plan and do such a thing. Who could have such foresight, such knowledge, such wisdom.
Do you really want to call any of that chance? Do you really want to believe that we somehow evolved into these masterpieces?
And it all started with this clay prototype. Beautifully sculpted, perhaps laying on the ground and God stoops down and His very lips touch the sinless, lifeless man, and He breathes life into us. This is the beginning of life.
God sets it all in motion again at the point of conception, and any interruption, of that life is murder plain and simple. How many times have we wittingly or unwittingly ended a life because we have been conditioned to believe that abortion and birth control are acceptable methods of dealing with what we perceive to be a problem.
When did we start considering miracles a problem?
When one looks at life as a miracle and a special gift from God, it becomes a lot easier to say “yes” to it. How comforting to know that this God who creates life also redeems it and there is no sin we have committed that He won't forgive, if we confess it and receive His forgiveness.
Oh yes, sin entered the world and the original Adam became flawed. These perfect sinless bodies and souls became tarnished, and susceptible to all kinds of damage. But God even uses the imperfections in us for His glory, if we will just allow Him.
“And His disciples asked Him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.. We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” (Jn 9:2-4)
Now, Jesus was talking about the work for Himself and His disciples, but I believe the principle is the same for us. “We must work the works of Him who sent,”
God creates us, redeems us, and sends us to accomplish His purposes.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10)
Pay attention to our reading and note the order. Man is created and THEN the Garden is planted. God created a task for Adam that he was especially suited for. He has a task for you too, in which you have been especially suited for. Not only in the world, but also in the Body of Christ.
Adam was created in Christ Jesus for a good work that God had prepared for him....Adam's workplace was the Garden, and oh what a workplace it was! “Every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, abundant water, and minerals...everything Adam needed to get the job done!
After the workplace had been prepared, THEN God “put him into the garden” with these instructions: “dress it and keep it.”
“Dress the garden!” What a strange yet all encompassing job description! What in the world does it mean to “dress” a Garden, ....in the Hebrew the word means “adorn.” It was Adam's job then to adorn, to add his personal touch to the workplace.
How many of you have ever watched the TV show , “The World's Dirtiest Jobs?” The host (Mike Rowe) looks for dirty jobs and then does them. He has sprayed insulation into homes....ah nothing like being coated with itchy fiber glass in a sun baked attic! He has worked as an aerial tram greaser.
He's worked on a honey wagon emptying septic tanks.
I got to thinking about some of the dirty jobs I've worked at in my life. I worked on a China farm crawling in the rich black dirt, and come home black! I moved up to a sod farm....again covered with God's good earth at the end of the day!. I worked in a foundry.....same thing, (I'm beginning to see a pattern here!)
I worked at a diner cleaning deep fryers and grills. I've worked in a scullery, (Navy talk for washing cafeteria dishes) I've had some pretty dirty jobs! But whether I knew it or not, all those jobs were adorned with my presence.
It's not that I was God's gift to this job, because that adornment can be something beautiful or something ugly, and I know that I am remembered one way or the other by every co-worker and boss I've ever had. God put me into each one of those jobs for a reason. He wanted me to adorn the workplace. Bring my stamp to it.
He wants to do the same with you at the place where He has set you. This is what it means to “work as unto the Lord.”
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not men.” (Col 3:23)
“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in his toil....this is God's gift to man..” ( Eccl 3:12,13)
Adam was made in God's creative image and He wants Adam to bring that creativity to the workplace. Adorn it! Give it your personal touch, and so much the more beauty as you have been touched by Christ!
Are you a teacher? Adorn your classroom, your school, your students bring all that God has placed in you to the workplace.
Financial planner, adorn your profession with integrity, godly care and concern for your clients.
Wait staff? Adorn the dining room, put your stamp on your service.
Mill worker? Adorn the shop with the light of Christ.
Retired? Adorn your neighborhood or the places where you volunteer.
Health field? Adorn with mercy, cheerfulness, and professionalism.
Personnel department? Adorn it with patience and creative distribution of others gifts and talents. Home maker? Put your touch on the walls and in the meatloaf, and on your children.
Student? Put your adornment on your assignments and relationships with others in the class.
Athlete? Adorn the court or the field.with concentration, dedication and joy.
I don't mean to embarrass Jack, but he was on Sport Center's top ten plays one day this past summer. He made a spectacular diving catch, and I'll always remember the look on his face....it was boyhood glee. That's Jack! That's who he is, and he brings it to his workplace and adorns it.
You see this adornment isn't something we can fake. It's something that God puts in us, but He wants us to let it out of the bag! Don't sit on it, or stifle it. Look at the freedom God gave Adam in the Garden, everything was his except sin.
Everything in the workplace is yours too.....except sin. Make the most of it while you're there. Treasure it! That was the second command for Adam, he was to dress and Keep the garden....the workplace. There's that word “keep” again and it means to “put a hedge around it as if it were valuable.” Treasure your work whatever it may be during this season of your life. It's a gift from God!
I'm going to show you a video clip from one of my favorite videos....The Music Box. It's a story of a new Christian and the clip I am going to show is this new Christian “adorning” his home and his workplace.
Video
Now, it's a little bit overblown, to the point of being obnoxious, God is not calling you to be an obnoxious Christian.....but would you agree, that there should be a stark contrast between the believer and the unbeliever in the garden where God has placed them?
I hope so.
Tomorrow is Monday.... a work day, you will be going back to the place where God has put you. Dress it and keep it in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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