Daily Devotional January 8 - What Are You Going To Do With Your Garden?

"And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He formed."  Genesis 2:8

I saw this and had and incredible thought.  The Lord, God Himself planted a garden.  I'm thinking that this kind of planting was different than, "Let there be Light" or "Let the earth bring forth grass..."  The reason I am bringing this up is, I believe that we are made in the image and likeness of God and just like God planted a garden eastward of Eden, we are given the responsibility of planting a garden as well.

So many people just want to speak things into existence like God did and there is certainly plenty of teaching out there to accommodate all those who think that is the way to get things done.  But I have grown with God and my understanding is that you and I will do most of the planting if planting is to get done.  Don't get me wrong, I am for praying with expectation that God will intervene on our behalf to bring to pass what would not without the help of God.  But I am also for putting one foot in front of the other and making things happen with hard work and a right motive.  God could have spoken the garden into existence, but decided to plant it instead.  I believe that God planted the garden because of its importance.  He was going to place man and woman in the garden to work it and operate it, til it and monitor it, plant it and pick it.  In short God showed them how it was done and then put them in charge to continue on.

It is the same with your life and mine.  God created our world and all that is in it, but God is showing us how to take care of it and how to manage it and puts us in charge of caring for it.  Our family, business, even our job fits into the category of: God provides us with the necessary components, shows us how to live, and gives us our lives to prepare the soil, plant the garden, water it, work it, weed it, watch it grow, prune it and pick its fruit.

You were made to be productive and accomplish a great many things.  Your garden (your intimate family, your friends and co-workers) as well as the world at large are all dependent on your viewpoint of the garden that was entrusted to you.  If you pick all its fruit without watering or tilling or weeding or pruning, the limbs will grow brittle and the trunk will rot.  You have been placed in the garden.  What are you going to do with your garden?