Many Christians forget the task that God gave humankind in Genesis 1:26, 28 and 2:15, where He told us to multiply and care for His earth and to cultivate it. This earth cultivation began with tilling the soil and raising livestock, but – as you will notice in Genesis 4 – it soon branched out into fabricating clothes, making tents, constructing cities, crafting musical instruments, and manufacturing tools. Today’s technology is a fascinating extension of tool production. This is God’s breathtaking challenge to all humans, which was jubilantly repeated in Psalm 8: “You made him ruler over the works of your hands.” He intends that we use the creative juices that He poured into each one of us in order to unfold the earth’s potential together. Sadly, this earth cultivation task is no longer done in loving obedience to God, according to His norms. Nowadays it is generally accomplished with total disregard for our Creator. Earth cultivation has become a self-glorifying activity in which we seek to make a name for ourselves and simply pursue our own interests or some selfish profit motive, so we largely ignore love for God and love for fellow human beings.

What becomes significant now is that our new life in Christ should involve the restoration of our earth cultivation task. Through our daily work, we are to reflect the greatness of our Saviour and Lord, who is the absolute Owner of Planet Earth.

Developing Planet Earth has become an activity that rebels against the Creator of this magnificent universe. For that reason much in our life has gone wrong. We have lost a sense of who we are and what we are here for. Our marriages do not always express the maturing love that ought to lay the foundation for healthy family life. Spouses usually don’t know how to deal wisely with their differences, but endlessly blame each other for their marriage problems. Our families – starting with Can’s jealousy of Abel (in Genesis) – are often troubled by discord. Quarrels erupt frequently and few are able to foster family wholeness. Then divorce tears down our social fabric. Our workplaces no longer understand their task within the total mandate of earth cultivation. Employer-employee and employee-employee relations at times become adversarial, and products or services may become shoddy. Educational leaders do not know how to teach the young what proper earth development means. Our economy pushes us to consume endlessly, so we are never satisfied. Moreover, industrial tycoons maximize profit at the expense of their employees Entertainment moguls focus on financial self-enrichment, but not on enriching the minds and hearts of their viewers or listeners. Artists of every stripe seek to express their feelings, but do not lead viewers to a God-given appreciation of visionary beauty and disdain for ugliness. News programs sensationalize what is controversial to enhance their company’s market value instead of earnestly informing us about truth and justice. We need to recover the true meaning of our multifaceted earth cultivation activities. And that requires acknowledging that we are not our own, but belong totally to the Owner of the universe. We are to unfold His will here. In Christ, He has rescued us from our sin-twisted ways of thinking and living to live according to His restorative norms