Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it.”
When God created Adam, He had a specific plan and purpose in mind for him. Adam wasn’t just placed in the Garden of Eden to enjoy it. God wanted him to be the gardener of Eden and take care of it.
We read in verse 8 of Chapter 2 that God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he put the man that He had formed.
God was the original Gardener, planting the most beautiful garden we could ever imagine. And then placing man there for a specific purpose…to work it and to look after it. He set the scene and prepared the environment and then He placed Adam there to do the work.
As with Adam, God has a purpose and a plan for each one of us. A work that He has called each one of us to do. Maybe you feel like your work isn’t good enough or important or glamorous enough. But if God has placed you in the environment that you are currently, He has a specific plan and purpose for you there and He will reveal it to you if that is within His will.
God doesn’t measure you by your success or your title or your position. Don’t think that if you are not the CEO or leading a team or building your own business, that your work isn’t important or significant. All that God originally wanted and expected from Adam was to tend and care for a garden and to be obedient to His instructions not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was simple. It was supposed to be easy.
Then the lies of the devil made everything complicated. Suddenly, Adam and Eve were questioning God’s original instructions. Since those days in the Garden of Eden thousands of years ago, the lies have never stopped. The devil hasn’t stopped trying to deceive us when it comes to our purpose and our identity in Christ.
As the Great Gardener, God has the ability to plant seeds in our lives and to water them, to cut off the dead branches and to prune the branches bearing fruit so they can bear even more fruit. If you submit to Him and are obedient to Him, He will make everything bloom in your life, even the parts that may seem small or insignificant to you.
And so my prayer is that wherever God plants you and me, we will “bloom with grace”.
The Faithfulness of God 