Re:Verse passage – Genesis 1:26–31, Romans 8:18–22 (day six)
In Married for God, Anglican theologian Christopher Ash says we are called to make “little gardeners.” I love that phrase. It captures something tender and profound about the heart of our most ancient commission: to multiply, to cultivate, and to care for the earth and all its inhabitants.
From the very beginning, humanity was not created merely to exist in creation, but to participate in it, to be gardeners. Even the seventh day of creation, the day of rest, is not the absence of purpose but the fulfillment of it. God’s rest reveals the goal of creation: a world where humanity co-rules with God in harmony, delight, and trust, resulting in genuine human flourishing in the land.
And yet, isn’t it striking how few of us know anything about gardening? How far removed we are from the soil beneath our feet? I’m not sure the connection is simple, but it does seem that living by our own wisdom (reaching for the fruit of the tree of knowledge) has left us less attentive to the world we were made to tend and less careful with the lives placed in our care.
Perhaps Treebeard says it best when describing Saruman in The Two Towers:
“He has a mind of metal and wheels, and he does not care for growing things.”
It’s a haunting description because it feels familiar. We know what it is to live at a pace and in a system that prizes efficiency over cultivation, productivity over patience.
But the gospel tells a different story. Jesus came not simply to rescue souls, but to restore creation—to make us gardeners again. In him, we learn once more how to tend what God has entrusted to us: relationships, communities, and the world itself.
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