Stewardship

Genesis 2:8;15 “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”

Adam was formed from the earth in the image of God. He and Eve were given the task of managing and furthering God’s wondrous creation. Adam named the animals, he was to till the ground and grow food, and they could eat from all the fruits of the garden save the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Though humanity no longer lives in the garden of Eden, we still live in God’s creation. Though Adam and Eve no longer manage the garden of Eden, humanity has still been tasked with managing God’s creation. To this day we still name new creatures and organisms that we discover. We constantly look for ways to yield better crops and bigger animals for our food. We have taken to fishing wild fish and farming fish in the sea. In some ways, we are still fulfilling God’s original task for humanity which is to serve as stewards over His creation.

While mankind does have the ability to do some extraordinary things in this world, we also have the ability to do some very destructive things. We have driven animals to extinction, we have developed toxic chemicals, we have destroyed precious land. It’s up to us to consider how we take care of His creation and if it is honorable to the Lord. We should be good stewards of God’s creation until He returns so that He can find us not only showing the love of Christ to one another as humans, but also managing His creation in a God honoring way.