Honoring the Lord through Creation

“For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense. 

Romans 1:20 AMP

The act of God creating the heavens and the earth provided a witness for all time that there was Someone greater than ourselves who was here before us and Who was far more powerful than what we can imagine. 

We know from creation also that God is good for He cared for all living things by creating for them what was necessary for their sustenance. Acts 14:17 says, “For God has not left Himself without a witness in that He did you good by giving you rains from heaven & fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food & gladness.”

Not only did He give us food but He also created our taste buds to amaze us with a myriad of delightful and delectable flavors.

Many more things about God can be seen through creation. For instance, we see that He is the master artist, having painted in the sky countless and varied breathtaking sunsets that thrill our souls. And He gave us eyes to see sunsets and other innumerable eye pleasures that take us beyond ourselves to wonder at how indescribably awesome our God is. This is so powerful.

But we know that natural man has high-jacked creation so that he no longer recognizes the Creator at all. Instead he, a godless inventor, being alienated from God, credits the origins of the universe to the most ridiculous fabrications, denying God's power and Glory.

But creation still shouts of it’s Creator! And as believers, we should be drawing those that God puts in our paths to Him by extolling Him through His creation. But how but do we do this?

Looking back at the story of creation in Genesis 1, we see that God created everything, including the first man and woman. He not only created them, but He, being a personal God, also communed with them daily. And He provided for their every need through the work He gave them to do. And it wasn't just that He provided what they needed, there was great pleasure and beauty in their assigned work.

For the couple's provision and delight, God created an amazing garden - the Garden of Eden. Here the man and woman were given the responsibility of caring for and maintaining the garden as their home, where beauty and abundance (man’s sustenance) abounded. This meaningful work in the perfect garden, provided a beautiful backdrop for Adam and Eve to observe God and His attributes as Romans 1:20 describes.

Indeed this was the most magnificent place on the earth - a place where God’s attributes shone brightest, both through the man and woman, who knew God personally, and through the beautiful garden as Romans 1:20 describes. 

Adam and Eve must have been stunned by what they saw, tasted, felt, heard and smelled there in the garden. And they knew it was all from the One they walked with there in cool of the evening.

Of course, we know that it wasn’t long before the man and woman rebelled against the one requirement that God had given them, that being not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve disregarded the one prohibition that God made. As a result, the couple brought sin and death into a perfect world and they were driven out of the most lush and beautiful garden ever created. 

But they were still to obey the mandate God had given in the garden, even after they were removed from the garden. That mandate was the same - to work the soil, “therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.” Genesis 3:23

Though the attributes of God were most clearly seen in the garden, the curse has rendered the cultivation of the soil and the fruit of it (even the fruit of the womb), difficult, even painful to produce.

Original sin has hidden God’s obvious and amazing character traits not only because weeds, thorns, thistles, etc. mar the beauty of creation, but creation is marred also because man is now born alienated from His Creator. One result of that alienation is his tireless endeavor to credit the creation to silly and senseless lies, such as the Big Bang theory.

So, one good question to ask ourselves on this side of the curse is “how can we, as those who love and serve our Lord, work with creation, though it suffers from the curse, in such a way that Eden is recreated both in our hearts and in the soil”? 

And how can we show forth God’s perfections so that those who do not know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, can see through creation (in the “garden” and in ourselves, both of these being part His creation) those invisible attributes that Romans 1:20 describes?

Ephesians tells us “For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the abundant life which He prearranged and made ready for us." Ephesians 2:10 AMP

One of those good works can be to joyfully and responsibly tend a garden, the first responsibility that God gave to man. And He gave Adam this opportunity twice - once in the Garden of Eden before he and Eve sinned (Genesis 2:15) and again when Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden after they sinned (Genesis 3:23). So both before and after sin entered the world, man and woman were given the work of “cultivating the ground”. To cultivate the ground means “to nurture the soil in order to grow plants that benefit mankind”. 

Both man (created by God) and the garden (also created by God) are avenues which God can use to showcase His attributes. Cultivating the ground is an excellent way to bear witness to the Lord’s perfections, both in a garden and in the soil of our hearts.

In addition, the word nurture (the definition of cultivate) means to nourish, sustain, strengthen, empower, energize, fortify, vitalize and more. When we commit to that first responsibility, the Lord will use us, as we cultivate both the ground and the soil of our hearts in ways that glorify Him and as we acknowledge the wonder of Who He is through what He has created.

But two questions arise:

#1. How do we cultivate the ground (of our hearts and of the earth) in such a way that nourishes, sustains, strengthens, empowers, energizes fortifies and vitalizes these two soils? 

#2. And how do we show forth through these two avenues - our hearts and the garden - the marvelous attributes of our gracious God so that men and women come to know Him, ensuring that they will not be without excuse on the day of judgment?

The answer is that we care for these important things through the truth of God’s word and His design for both our hearts and the earth. And we speak in ways that declare Him to be Who He is and acknowledge His love, grace, mercy, kindness, omnipotence, immutability, etc. 

In the weeks ahead we will look into the answers we find in both God’s word and in His design for the nurturing of our hearts and our gardens so that He may be known through the work that He has given us to do.

Stay tuned as we explore these  two ways of honoring Him.