Today I read Genesis 2:15 and Proverbs 28:19, showing our need to take care of our land and our gardens. Today I realized dressing the garden includes making it beautiful, treating and healing it, and preparing the harvest.

Work or Poverty

God has always told mankind to work the land (Genesis 2:15). When God first put man in the garden of Eden he told him to dress and keep the garden. God lets us know later in the scripture that we can either work the land to have a lot of food or chase vain people and have poverty (Proverbs 28:19).

Questions and Thoughts for Today

God told everyone to work the land to produce food and to dress the garden, but there was more to that word dress than I originally realized. There are at least three possible meanings attached to dressing something. When you dress a garden you are clothing it, adorning, arranging the area and even decorating it like a store window. Secondly, dressing the garden could also mean treating wounds which includes cleaning injuries, applying protective covering or medicine. Third, dressing the garden can mean preparing food like cleaning, seasoning, and cooking. You are not only making it beautiful, you are treating and keeping it safe, and preparing the harvest for food.

Then I further thought about there are gardens now in which people pay to come see the gardens, locations where people are trained in the treating of plants, and farmers who know how to harvest and prepare food. All of these exist and can result in individuals having abundance instead of poverty.