Genesis 3:17-19

¹⁷And to the man he said, ...
'cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.’

On Monday, I stood over a plot of ground that - for the first time in my life - I planned to cultivate. 20' by 10'. Not much in the way of farming. Nothing to sustain our own family let alone the 100 plus people the average American farm now sustains. But, as meager as it may be, it was our first attempt to "bring forth" from the earth instead of just waiting for food to arrive almost magically into our home.

After a good days work, something resembling a garden plot was eeked out. It was certainly not easy work - even with the benefit of a tiller to take away part of the sweat and curse placed upon Adam. The real difficulty, which I could never foresee, was a hidden root system beneath the dirt.

A good six inches below if not further in most places, the remnant of an old tree lay spread out in all directions - impossible to trace and unearth in full. At first the roots were almost inconsequential with the power of motor and metal churning their way through the small roots. But, I had only begun to discover the depth and density of life this old tree had laid in the ground. Just when it seemed the path had been cleared for the old steel blades of the tiller to plow through the good earth, another hiccup would send the machine bucking against its task - revealing another place to stop the tiller and dig with the spade. So much for industrialized labor.

And as I found myself hacking away at buried roots, sweat pouring down my face and the ever increasing awareness that the sun was going to leave me reddened and tender, I could not help but draw up that most ancient of all truths: the earth will be both vex and delight, opening its providential hand only after being pried through toil ... and, then, in the end, opening its hand one more time to receive that which it has born. Such is the mystery of Adam. From dust you are and to dust you shall return.

Wes