Labor Day

This is Labor Day in the U.S., observed with a Monday holiday, making a welcome three-day weekend for working people.

There are some people who believe work is part of the curse laid on mankind for Adam’s part in disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden. They don’t like the fact that we have to work; it is bad. But there’s good evidence against this.

If you think about the “bad” things that are personally carried out, you come to the conclusion that they’re done by people when they are not working, at least, not working honestly. The death rate for people who stop doing anything productive, particularly after early retirement, is alarming. Work is a good thing!

Work was invented by God. Adam and Eve tended the Garden He had planted, and took some responsibility for the animals; that is, they worked. This was while they were still in their perfect sinless environment, not as a result of sin. It was part of God’s plan. God did not curse Adam, but the ground itself so that it would be productive only through difficulty. Most of us no longer make our living directly from the earth; by extension, this hardship means, for many, keeping a distasteful job that they hate but have to maintain.

This would be a good day to thank God for inventing work as a way to guard and guide us. It would be a good day for gratitude if you have a job. It would be a good day to pray for the unemployed who would labor if they could.

MaryMartha

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/