Meditation on labor

*clears up the cobwebs*

Hi all. I came here to share about my meditations on labor on Labor day.
Let us look at a few passages.

When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:4b-7)

God created us and desires for us to work, not for ourselves but for Him. Initially, it may refer to manual work to maintain this creation. Now we should consider it as general work and work to keep things running, in a way to help to maintain the society and economy.

God desires us to be his co-worker. That being said, he is not handing all the work to us but working alongside with us. Systematically the passage showed that God did his part by damping the ground with water in the streams, before creating man as solutions (v6) to the problems mentioned in the preceding verse (v5).

Next passage I want to share will be Ecclesiastes 3:9-15.

What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.

Here King Solomon also sees work as a God-given task. I believe God wants us to appreciate the beauty of His work and and so we should make our work beautiful too. God wants us to enjoy working for him and view work as a gift from Him. Therefore, we need to thank God for work.

The last point is that God does all that he does for us because he wants us to revere Him and hence, all that we do should be an act of reciprocating his love for us. That being said, through work we can be a good testimony to God. May it bring others to revere Him too.

Let us do all our part for Him in reverence of Him. If work is not done for Him and our satisfaction is not derived from Him, everything that we are pursuing are but vanities; All is vanity and grasping for the passing wind.