Work ... a part of God's perfect creation

When you hear the word “work,” what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
When I hear the word “work,” positive images pop into my mind. In part I believe that is because I grew up in a home where work was seen as a good thing. It was something I never heard my parents complain about.
As I grew older, I started working for others, whether that was baling hay for area farmers or carrying out groceries at Fareway.
After I started working, I also found out that not everyone liked work. Work wasn’t a joy for some people; instead, they saw it as a burden.  Work was something they had to do to make a living.
I found myself wondering why I liked to work when other people did not like to work. Did my dad and mom brainwash me? Was work more difficult for some people than it was for me?  Was my family just weird?
I wondered what the Bible has to say about work.  I found I didn’t have to look very far to find my answer. It was right there at the beginning of the Bible. Work is a part of God’s perfect creation, as Genesis 2:15 shares with us. God created humans and then he gave them work to do. God didn’t just plop Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and then tell them to take it easy. He instructed them to work it and take care of it.
What this teaches us is that work is not something that’s bad. Quite the contrary, it is something that is good – in fact very good – because it is a part of God’s perfect creation.
Think about the impact that Genesis 2:15 can have on how we view work. What we begin to recognize is that work existed before sin entered the world.
For some people the thought of work being good is unthinkable. For them work is at best simply a means to an end.
There are two competing theories about work. One is that people work to play, meaning work is some kind of necessary evil,  some kind of burden we have to bear in order to do what we want to do.
But that isn’t what God is teaching us. If work is a part of creation pre-sin, then it would stand to reason that work isn’t burden. Work is a blessing because it was a part of the perfect world from the beginning.
In God’s perfect design there will always be work for us to do. Keep in mind that it will be good work, productive work. Work that will keep us occupied with gladness of heart.