I invite the reader to work with me on this, healthy dose of faith based concept, heavy dose of applicable truth and concept.
The creation happened over 6 days in the first chapter of Genesis. Lastly created was man. Image and likeness of God. Yes, we are that special, yes you are that beautiful. Day 3 saw God cause land to appear and agriculture to begin. His farming was automatic like the sprinklers so there was no need to work the soil. Day 6, saw God create man (Adam) and plant a garden for him to “tend and keep.” First takeaways:
Adam had a job.
The job was working the garden.
Adam met his boo in the garden.
Fellas, get job. Eve might be waiting for you there. Eve don’t like broke, lazy men.
I digress.
God said to them both, eat fruit, from only these trees in this garden. . Now trees could be bushes and vines, so we’ll include vegetables. My vegans love this.
On day 3 God said for the earth as a whole to produce vegetation, yet He set up a garden separate for Adam and then Eve to work, in which there were specific foods to eat, like a holistic food store that you both work and shop at. I am about to make my point and it‘s not that meat is bad.
The point being is that a call from God is sufficient with grace to accomplish it. What we need is the focus on the immediate moment and not the larger picture. We lose out on detailing the present with too much focus on the future. Too much ambition is dangerous if you are not prepared for it. This I am guilty of.
God said be fruitful and multiply – translation – be successful and have babies. God gave them the world but put them in the garden. The entire planet, yet you have a small plot of land to keep.
Why?
Process and practice.
The garden is a metaphorical example of the areas in our lives in which we are placed. Adam had zero choice as to what he looked like or where he was born or where he was placed. The same is true for us, zero control over the major designations of our lives in which we are born into. But what we are born into shapes us and we find our call hidden within our experience. The challenge is to maintain what we are doing, where we are at and not become lofty in pursuing goals that are outside of our garden. The garden is the goal. No goal matters more than the one you are currently working on. God has a plan, the goals are checkpoints in the overreaching plan. Sequencing and order are critical on the path to success.
Adam and Eve, well they missed a great opportunity to have sex. These two were the baddest, most perfectly sculpted humans ever. Summer bodies on point. They blew away any IG model, it wasn’t even close, sorry Victoria’s Secret, zero chance, even with cosmetic surgery no one could hold a candle next to them. I know this because God created them. God don’t like ugly, He’s not going to make ugly kids. If our kids are cute by accident, God’s creation, handcrafted…….yeah they were gorgeous. Sex should have be automatic and often for them to multiply. They did not multiply until after they got kicked out of the garden. That was their job in the garden, be successful and reproduce (procreate). God said work hard, eat and have sex and make babies. Need that call in my life. Now. Need it now. Ahora.
Had that happened, the ambition of the reign of the world would have begun in the garden. More people require more land. Successful people require a lot more resources to perpetuate success. They literally would have grown out of the garden and into the rest of the earth, which was already prepared for them to do so. Or they would have expanded the garden to encompass the whole of the earth. Think urban sprawl but botanical.
I noticed that God told Adam then Eve eat from the trees in the garden, but earlier said that the trees and herbs of the ground were for food. Inside the garden were designated trees (resources) outside the garden were other resources to be utilized. Master first that which is front of you. The same principals used to reach success are required to maintain success.
See, we want to save the world but forget about our gardens. Our families, jobs we don’t like, kids and friendships fall to secondary status to the bigger loftier idea that is “just waiting to be seized.” Pastors want larger congregations and more social media presence to do “more” but are getting divorced, CEO’s don’t know their kid’s favorite color, forget wedding anniversaries and eat too much and aren’t taking care of the garden of their own physical bodies. People work 8 days a week to create a lifestyle that they don’t even slow down enough to enjoy let alone share.
We put a tangible “now” to the side and focus on an intangible “then” and fail to see how the two of them connect. Eden should have been Grandma and Grandpa’s house, while their offspring populated the world. Mission accomplished on both objectives.
It is of utmost importance to know the larger mission goal but to attack each objective as it comes. Ain’t no way a serpent could distract me from my wife or her from me if we are taking seriously the mission of the garden.
Lastly, take some time. Think about who is in your garden, in your life. What makes you strong from your garden? What serpents are there? Identify your plot, keep it, work it, own it, and watch it grow. “Name the animals”, meaning speak life into your own garden and finally let God decide the timing on when Eve (destiny) comes into your life because gifts from God come when you are ready.