One writer notes: ‘In the first chapters of Genesis, God is seen to be a designer, builder, gardener, teacher, caretaker, legislator, social worker and tailor.’

We see God at work in the Garden, and our calling and privilege as God’s image-bearers is to tuck in behind the divine purpose and to tend the Garden with him. The Garden is a precursor of the kingdom… This is where we can make a contribution, in tiny details every day, and it gives value to our work and our self-understanding.

We may note, however, that God does not [necessarily] equate work with money. Work does not have to be paid to be significant. Work in the voluntary sector is just as valuable. Childcare is major work, for either parent. The equation of work with the earning of money is a hard one to break, however, and we need to keep returning to the biblical picture of work as the expenditure of energy in the service of God and the world God loves.

– John Pritchard

[Note: John Pritchard, Living Faithfully, 2013, SPCK London, p.67]

Krish Kandiah, Twenty-four: Integrating faith and real life, Milton Keynes: Authentic, 2007, p.52