“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15)

Gardening – the world’s oldest profession. (despite what we’ve been told) Adam and Eve were the original gardeners. They were put in charge of The Garden, the Garden of Eden. They were responsible for taking care of God’s creation. No small task. And it’s a responsibility humankind retains to this day.

We see this work of gardening carried out in many ways. Farmers till the soil to produce the crops that feed us all. Some tend orchards and vineyards and others tend animals which give us milk or eggs or meat or even clothing via wool or clothing from plants like cotton or flax. God’s good garden was designed to supply all our needs. We were “to work it and take care of it.” In return, God’s creation, God’s garden, would take care of us.

God’s creation is perfectly designed to meet all our needs.

“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31)

So God created the garden, and then God made us the gardeners.

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.’ ” (Genesis 1:27-29)

Our very first job was gardening. Today though, not many of us are garden tenders. We view gardening as more of a hobby than a vocation, (or our original calling) even though nowadays people take classes to become master gardeners and landscaping, landscape architecture, horticulture, greenhouses, farmer’s markets and flower shops are thriving businesses. Maybe gardening is making a comeback?

Both my grandmothers were gardeners. Well, one employed a gardener, one was a gardener. Both their backyards were full of beautiful flowers in every season, except winter of course. Most of these flowers just magically appeared in their season, year after year. As a child, I took the beauty and peace and wonder of their backyards for granted. I was not aware of all the intentional good gardening going on behind the scene, that made these gardens the oases of color and life that they were. I simply enjoyed them.

I tend to do the same thing today with God’s garden, the earth. The earth is filled with the beauty of God’s creation everywhere I look. And even though I and my fellow gardeners (that’s y’all – we have each one been given the task of tending God’s garden) have not always been good gardeners, God’s flowers and plants and trees and mountains and waterfalls and sunsets and seas and marshes full of wildlife and deserts teeming with plant and animal life – all seem to keep on in spite of neglect or mismanagement on our part. Good thing, God, as the Master Gardener, is in charge. I recall His words to Noah after the flood –

“And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. ‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’ ” (Genesis 8:21-22)

I am thankful that even when I am not the attentive, good gardener God has asked me to be, His garden still grows and produces and provides for us all. God’s perfect design continues to sustain us. A good example of this intricate perfection is photosynthesis. We humans need oxygen to live. We need to get oxygen from the air we breathe. Fortunately for us, all the living, growing, green trees, plants, grass, shrubs etc. give off oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis.

Now photosynthesis is the process taking place in all those living green leaves. It involves sunlight, water, chlorophyll, and another element necessary in order for the plants, trees etc. to grow and to produce food for us to eat. The vital element? Carbon dioxide – CO2. That’s right. All living plant life depends on carbon dioxide to stay alive and to carry out the process of photosynthesis. Fortunately for them, that’s one of the things we humans breathe out – carbon dioxide. What we don’t need – the plants and trees do need. And vice versa. We need what they are getting rid of – oxygen! God’s perfect design in action. (so why all the worry about CO2? I think all green plants need CO2 for photosynthesis, and we need photosynthesis for food production!)

Sunlight is God’s most important gardening tool. It is sunlight that supplies the energy for photosynthesis to take place. That’s why I don’t understand something I read recently about chem trails from jets putting chemicals into our atmosphere (like aluminum) to reflect the sun’s rays away from the earth, supposedly to cool the earth. As a result, crop production is diminished because less sunlight affects photosynthesis, a process that cannot take place without sunlight.

I wonder how this lessening of sunlight affects our bodies’ ability to produce vitamin D, which normally takes place naturally (and for free) when we are exposed to the sun’s light? And what’s the point of all these solar panels if at the same time we are actively working to reduce the amount of sunlight the earth receives? Gardeners are concerned about the toxic chemicals in solar panels, and about the aluminum in the chem trails when it falls to earth and becomes part of our soil, but overall silence seems to prevail on these topics.

Not sure why we think we are better gardeners than the One who created the garden in the first place. The Master Gardener’s design is perfect and it works. Why would we want to interfere with that. I’m grateful the garden is still fruitful despite our neglect or outright harm. The psalmist said this –

“Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before Him and prepares the way for His steps.” (Psalm 85:11-13)

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” (Psalm 24:1-2)

A friend of mine is the epitome of a good gardener. She cares well for God’s garden and created a space of beauty and peace surrounding her home. It became a refuge for not only birds, bees and other wildlife, but for people as well. We would sit outdoors and enjoy the sanctuary she had created – a sanctuary full of flowers, full of birds, full of color, full of peace and quiet, full of life.

I am thankful there are no wind turbines in our area to intrude upon the peace and beauty of her garden sanctuary. They are loud and their vibrations disrupt life on the ground and in the air. I often wonder why the Audubon Society has remained so silent about the detrimental impact of the wind turbines on all kinds of bird life in myriad locations across the country. When these turbines are located off of our coasts both sea life and bird life are adversely affected. Instead of saving the environment, these turbines are killing wildlife and taking up land space that a good gardener could use for better purposes.

I fear we have not lived up to our charge to tend God’s garden well. We think we know better than the Creator, so we attempt to alter our weather with harmful chemicals. We are to be guarding God’s garden, not destroying it. Our wisdom too often turns out to be only foolishness and futility. Job found this out when he questioned God and God replied to Job with these words –

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone – while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?

Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? . . . Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? . . .

Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? . . . Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread his wings toward the south? Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high?” (Job 38:4-39:27)

Those words pretty much put things in perspective. I want to be a good gardener of this beautiful garden called earth. God has put you and me in charge, just as He did Adam and Eve in the beginning in the garden, “to work it and take care of it.”

Heavenly Father, help me to be a good gardener – caring well for Your creation.

sincerely, Grace Day