“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15). In the Hebrew derivations, the key verbs are abad and shamar. The former can be translated as work, nurture, sustain, and husband; the latter means to safeguard, preserve, care for, and protect. These are active verbs that convey God’s intention that human beings both develop and cherish the world in ways that meet human needs and bring glory and honor to him. In this creative labor, we mirror God’s own generative act and thus reflect our very nature as ones made in his likeness.
