Quotations in 2026 will be taken from the English Standard Version, a fairly recent translation (2001) that attempts to follow the rhythm of the King James Version while providing a word-for-word translation in contemporary English. I’ll also endeavor to connect each day’s reading from the Old Testament with a verse or two from the New Testament.

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“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). It is interesting that the paradise of Eden included work. Tilling the land to gain our daily food would become hot and sweaty labor after Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit and been ejected from the garden (3:17-19), but before sin and its consequences, work was already on the agenda.

There are two verbs used to describe what the man was supposed to do in the garden God had created: he was to work it and keep it. Working it might seem to imply we can make the land produce what we want it to produce, and keeping it might seem to imply that it is ours and nobody can tell us otherwise. But the weight of these two words is different from that.

The root meaning of these two Hebrew verbs is to serve and to steward. It is not a question of dominating the garden, bending to your will, refusing to listen to anyone else’s wisdom. Rather it is a question of caring for the land, making sure it has what it needs, serving it: and guarding it, protecting it from erosion, stewarding it. In the ordinance of creation, before any sin has blemished the human heart, it is God’s intention for us to serve the earth, and steward it.

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And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?” (Luke 12:42). People get the food they need, or they don’t, depending on how good a job we do of stewarding the resources entrusted to us.

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God our Creator: we are not good at serving the earth and stewarding the land and sea around us. Too often we think in terms of quick profits, and fail to give heed to the long-term consequences that may come from our actions. Help us, we pray, to see the earth and all its people with the love with which you love us all.

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