Working the Land
Photo by Zoe Schaeffer on Unsplash
What are you doing to cultivate the place where you live? How are you producing for the welfare of you, your family and the people who live around you?
Since the beginning of creation God placed humanity in a garden and invited us to have dominion over the earth, to cultivate the garden, and to fill the earth and to subdue it.
Everyone benefits from the cultivation of place and the flourishing that comes from working the land and producing the fruit of our labor.
When God’s people were exiled in Babylon, God spoke through the Prophet Jeremiah, encouraging them to flourish while in exile.
God spoke to the Israelites saying, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce…seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”(Jeremiah 29:5-7, NIV).
When we work to cultivate the place where we live, we flourish when it flourishes. When we produce fruit from working the land, everyone in the land benefits from that fruitfulness.
May we seek the prosperity of the place where we live—working the land, and bringing forth fruitful flourishing for us, four our families, and for the people around us.
In Christ alone, Robbie
A Prayer For Agriculture And Farming: “Almighty God, we thank you for making the earth fruitful, so that it may produce what is needed to sustain our life: Bless those who work in the fields; give us seasonable weather; and grant that we may all share the fruits of the earth, rejoicing in your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (#48, Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Photo by Zoe Schaeffer on Unsplash
