Genesis 1:26-30 King James Version (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Genesis 2:7 New King James Version (NKJV)
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Every other creature was spoken into existence. Man and woman were actually formed by the hand of God out of the soil of the ground. No mater what your beliefs are, you cannot deny that after our body dies and decays it becomes soil again.
Mankind was God's special creation. We were created to commune with God. God doesn't need us, but he wants us to be his friends and family. I am sure you know what I mean. There are a lot of things that we want but really do not need.
Everything that man needs to survive and to thrive physically is provided by the earth, God's creation. God gave mankind dominion over all the earth. Dominion, not to abuse or rape the earth, but to be a good steward of the bounty the earth can provide. Since the very beginning seed time and harvest were initiated and they shall remain as long as this earth continues.
I believe one of our biggest problems in society today is we are living in a fabricated world. The world we live in would have been a wild fantasy a hundred years ago. There have been barbaric times throughout history, but in all honesty we live in barbaric times now, oh we think we have culture because of all of the stuff we have around us. Think about it the reasons a person is murdered today are the same reasons a person was murdered a thousand years ago, possessions, emotions, and power.
When a person first truly looks at the soil they are truly amazed. In a single handful of healthy soil there are millions of tiny living creatures. Some of these creatures you can see many you can't. Most of the life in that handful of dirt is so small that only a microscope can bring them into focus.
The farther we get away from the soil the more difficult it is for us to connect with God. The soil, the garden, in fact all of nature proclaims to me there is a God and he loves us. I know there are scientific reasons for a lot of things that I think are glorious, but a rose does not have to be beautiful to get insects to pollinate them, they do not have to smell so good. I believe the earth was created for our pleasure and for us to experience God.
I have had people ask me why I want to know about all of the edible and medicinal plants that grow wild. To many people that is so strange when there is a grocery store only a few miles away. Verse 29 holds the answer.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
I firmly believe that in plants there is a cure for every disease that we will ever come in contact with. I do not believe that God created this earth just for existence and for beauty. I believe he created this place because he knew we would fall, he knew all of the things we would face and he built in the answers to every challenge. I find the fingerprint of God in nature quite often, if you look close you might too.
Man was created from the soil, sustained by the soil, and our body will return to the soil, all for the glory of God.
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