My wife and I started gardening a few weeks ago. We are growing mint, tomatoes, basil, and hot peppers. After buying the plants from the nursery, we moved them to bigger pots, changed the soil, and gave them special plant fertilizer. We water the pots about 3-4 times weekly. We place them in direct sunlight. We move them out of the wind. We even watch and spray for harmful bugs. Best part – I’ve gotten absolutely no fruit from the plant.

The process has been laborious. Why would I sign up for this?

This question has been on my mind – but there is something about growing plants for food that speaks to my heart. Perhaps it’s that my grandfather had a farm and I have blurry memories of milking cows and eating there? Or perhaps it stems (pun!) from earlier in my genealogy?

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; Genesis 1:28-30

See, I was ordained to eat from the earth, I was appointed to have dominion over it. I was given an implied responsibility here, and then it’s explained in the next chapter.

The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food….Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Genesis 2:8-9, 15

There it is. I love that God’s Word has answers to all of my deepest questions. My yearning was planted (that’s 2 puns) in my heart.

In Psalm 24, David says “the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s” – yes, it’s all His! But I was given a role to garden. Adam was the first gardener, his job was to keep weeds out, and to make sure the fruit comes.

Psalm 24 is significant for another reason in our Coptic Orthodox tradition – we chant it during the resurrection reenactment.