The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15 ESV)
Labor
Mankind was created to work. We might not like to hear that, these days. We relish rest, we tire of tasks, we lament our lists.
But we still work.
When God cursed Adam by declaring that from then on, Adam would work by the sweat of his brow, God did not remove work from Adam’s responsibility.
In fact, remembering that while work is yet another thing Adam ruined when he first sinned, work, like all of creation, was given to us as a blessing. Work gives us purpose here, work allows us to use our abilities and gifts, work can change the world. Work can undo some of the effects of Adam’s sin, and ours.
We not only must work, we get to work.
In fact, rather than bemoan work and attempt to escape it, we can celebrate that God trusts us enough to give us work.
And of course, Jesus works on our behalf! He empowers our work. He fixes our errors in work. He sanctifies our work.
And He loves it when we work.
We are peculiar, we get to work.