A friend and I were talking about first jobs the other day. For him, it was mowing lawns for his uncle’s landscaping company. That experience completely changed his life. He told me that he started seeing the world differently. Being given responsibility caused him to rethink how he used his time and resources: instead of wasting it, he wanted to make sure to use the time he’d been entrusted with to enrich the new boss’s business. That got me thinking about humanity’s “first job.”

When God created Adam and Eve, he didn’t do it in a vacuum: he did it in the context of creation. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, and given a job — to be fruitful, multiply, and “have dominion over” the earth. We’ve been given responsibility to care for it, protect it, and act in its best interests. In a word, it’s the job of stewardship — the job of caring for assets and multiplying them. Even to this day, that same divine mandate holds true.

But here’s where it’s different from how most of us remember our first jobs: we’re not working for God, as if he’s some divine boss looking over our shoulder. Instead, we get to work with him – rolling up our sleeves and joining him in the stewardship of his creation — created through Christ, for Christ, and to be inherited by Christ. Out of his love, God invites, empowers, and enables us to join him in this incredible life. He entrusts us with resources beyond even those surrounding us in creation — our minds, bodies, talents, relationships, and time — and swings the door wide open, welcoming us alongside him into his ongoing care-taking and ultimate “renewal of all things.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of any “first job” that could be more exciting than that!

I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.