The Garden of Blessing: Planted to be a Blessing
The Garden of Blessings: Planted to Be a Blessing (Part 2)
Have you ever planted a garden with a specific purpose in mind? Perhaps vegetables to feed your family, flowers to attract butterflies, or trees to provide shade for generations to come? When you placed those seeds or seedlings in the soil, you had a vision—a clear intention for what they would become and how they would benefit others.
This is precisely how our story in Genesis begins. The Master Gardener stepped into an empty field, His eyes seeing not what was, but what could be. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). With skilled hands, He began to work—forming, shaping, planting. Light burst through darkness. Waters gathered. Land appeared. And then the magnificent planting began—trees stretching skyward, flowers dotting the landscape with color, grasses waving in the gentle breeze.
But God had something truly special in mind. He knelt down, took rich soil in His hands, and shaped His masterpiece—a man, Adam. And with divine breath, Adam awakened to a world alive with wonder. Soon after, Eve joined him as well. Together, they stood as the crown of creation—God's image bearers planted in Eden's soil.
"Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth and tend it," God told them (Genesis 1:22).
Do you see what God was doing? He wasn't just creating people to exist—He was planting blessing in human form. Adam and Eve were meant to grow God's goodness and glory throughout creation. Their work, their relationships, their very lives were designed to produce the fruit of blessing for all creation. Their relationship with Him, with each other, and with creation was unmarred—fertile ground for blessing to flourish.
But something went terribly wrong. The serpent slithered into this perfect garden with a poisonous question: "Did God really say...?" (Genesis 3:1) He suggested God was holding back something good and that God couldn't be trusted as the perfect source of everything good.
In that pivotal moment, Adam and Eve faced a critical choice about the soil of their hearts—would they choose faith or unbelief? Faith meant trusting and depending that everything good comes from God. Unbelief meant doubting His goodness and attempting to become master gardeners themselves, determining what was good and what was evil.
They chose unbelief. They reached for the forbidden fruit, thinking they knew better than the Master Gardener. And just as one bad root can spoil an entire crop, this unbelief poisoned everything. Like a virus seeping into farmland, sin corrupted the soil of human hearts. The ground that was meant to produce blessing now produced thorns and thistles. Work became toil. Relationships fractured.
The consequences were devastating. Genesis 6:5 records, "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Instead of being channels of blessing, humans became sources of curse to God's creation. The very ones planted to bless the world now poisoned it with their unbelief.
This happens in our own hearts too. When we stop trusting God as the source of everything good, we try to manufacture blessing on our own terms. We reach for what we think will satisfy, only to find it leaves us empty and others hurt. We're still eating fruit we weren't meant to eat, still poisoning the soil of our hearts with unbelief, still believing the lie that we know better than God.
But here's the astonishing thing: God didn't abandon His garden. When Adam and Eve stood trembling in their makeshift fig-leaf clothes, God Himself made them better garments. When Cain became a wanderer, God placed a mark of protection on him. When humanity's wickedness reached its peak, God preserved Noah and promised a new beginning.
Even as humans rejected their purpose as blessing-bearers, God kept His purpose alive. He initiated a plan that would ultimately lead to redemption, keeping a remnant alive—a single seed of hope buried in the flood-soaked soil.
The truth remains: We were planted to be a blessing. Sin corrupted that purpose but didn't erase it. And God, the persistent Gardener, wasn't finished. He had a plan to restore blessing through one faithful family line. While Adam chose the soil of unbelief, God would soon find a man who would plant his feet in the soil of faith—Abraham, whose story we'll explore next week.
Today's Reflection
In what areas of your life are you trying to "be your own gardener," determining what's good or bad apart from God's wisdom? How might choosing faith over unbelief allow God's blessing to flow through you to others today?
Prayer
Master Gardener, forgive me for the times I've poisoned the soil of my heart with unbelief. I confess I've often thought I knew better than You, reaching for what You never intended me to have. Thank You for not abandoning Your garden—for not abandoning me. Restore in me the purpose for which You planted me: to be a channel of Your blessing. Till the hardened ground of my heart so that Your goodness can take root and grow. Help me to trust You as the source of everything good, that I might bear fruit that nourishes others with Your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Join us next week as we explore how Abraham was "Rooted to Grow in Blessing" through the soil of faith.
Have you ever planted a garden with a specific purpose in mind? Perhaps vegetables to feed your family, flowers to attract butterflies, or trees to provide shade for generations to come? When you placed those seeds or seedlings in the soil, you had a vision—a clear intention for what they would become and how they would benefit others.
This is precisely how our story in Genesis begins. The Master Gardener stepped into an empty field, His eyes seeing not what was, but what could be. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). With skilled hands, He began to work—forming, shaping, planting. Light burst through darkness. Waters gathered. Land appeared. And then the magnificent planting began—trees stretching skyward, flowers dotting the landscape with color, grasses waving in the gentle breeze.
But God had something truly special in mind. He knelt down, took rich soil in His hands, and shaped His masterpiece—a man, Adam. And with divine breath, Adam awakened to a world alive with wonder. Soon after, Eve joined him as well. Together, they stood as the crown of creation—God's image bearers planted in Eden's soil.
"Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth and tend it," God told them (Genesis 1:22).
Do you see what God was doing? He wasn't just creating people to exist—He was planting blessing in human form. Adam and Eve were meant to grow God's goodness and glory throughout creation. Their work, their relationships, their very lives were designed to produce the fruit of blessing for all creation. Their relationship with Him, with each other, and with creation was unmarred—fertile ground for blessing to flourish.
But something went terribly wrong. The serpent slithered into this perfect garden with a poisonous question: "Did God really say...?" (Genesis 3:1) He suggested God was holding back something good and that God couldn't be trusted as the perfect source of everything good.
In that pivotal moment, Adam and Eve faced a critical choice about the soil of their hearts—would they choose faith or unbelief? Faith meant trusting and depending that everything good comes from God. Unbelief meant doubting His goodness and attempting to become master gardeners themselves, determining what was good and what was evil.
They chose unbelief. They reached for the forbidden fruit, thinking they knew better than the Master Gardener. And just as one bad root can spoil an entire crop, this unbelief poisoned everything. Like a virus seeping into farmland, sin corrupted the soil of human hearts. The ground that was meant to produce blessing now produced thorns and thistles. Work became toil. Relationships fractured.
The consequences were devastating. Genesis 6:5 records, "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Instead of being channels of blessing, humans became sources of curse to God's creation. The very ones planted to bless the world now poisoned it with their unbelief.
This happens in our own hearts too. When we stop trusting God as the source of everything good, we try to manufacture blessing on our own terms. We reach for what we think will satisfy, only to find it leaves us empty and others hurt. We're still eating fruit we weren't meant to eat, still poisoning the soil of our hearts with unbelief, still believing the lie that we know better than God.
But here's the astonishing thing: God didn't abandon His garden. When Adam and Eve stood trembling in their makeshift fig-leaf clothes, God Himself made them better garments. When Cain became a wanderer, God placed a mark of protection on him. When humanity's wickedness reached its peak, God preserved Noah and promised a new beginning.
Even as humans rejected their purpose as blessing-bearers, God kept His purpose alive. He initiated a plan that would ultimately lead to redemption, keeping a remnant alive—a single seed of hope buried in the flood-soaked soil.
The truth remains: We were planted to be a blessing. Sin corrupted that purpose but didn't erase it. And God, the persistent Gardener, wasn't finished. He had a plan to restore blessing through one faithful family line. While Adam chose the soil of unbelief, God would soon find a man who would plant his feet in the soil of faith—Abraham, whose story we'll explore next week.
Today's Reflection
In what areas of your life are you trying to "be your own gardener," determining what's good or bad apart from God's wisdom? How might choosing faith over unbelief allow God's blessing to flow through you to others today?
Prayer
Master Gardener, forgive me for the times I've poisoned the soil of my heart with unbelief. I confess I've often thought I knew better than You, reaching for what You never intended me to have. Thank You for not abandoning Your garden—for not abandoning me. Restore in me the purpose for which You planted me: to be a channel of Your blessing. Till the hardened ground of my heart so that Your goodness can take root and grow. Help me to trust You as the source of everything good, that I might bear fruit that nourishes others with Your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Join us next week as we explore how Abraham was "Rooted to Grow in Blessing" through the soil of faith.
Posted in Genesis
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