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Before we leave Ephesians 4:29, I’d like to share with an example of someone using words to build up others. This example made a strong impression on me and I’d like you to know about it.

We have spent the last several days focusing on the first of the tasks that God gave to the man in the garden of Eden. This task, as you recall, is tilling, or, if we render the Hebrew more literally, serving. As tillers in our work, we labor with considerable effort so that the world might produce the fruit God intended. The second of the tasks specified in Genesis 2:15 is “keeping.” The Hebrew verb translated in the NRSV as “to keep” is shamar. In the Bible, this verb has various meanings, including: “to keep, guard, preserve, observe.” It will be used in the next chapter of Genesis to describe the action of the cherubim who “guard” the way to the tree of life, keeping human beings out of Eden (Gen 3:24). The sense of shamar in 2:15 is captured well by the CEB rendering, where God places the man in Eden “to take care of it.”

Responding to what we have been given by sending it out to multiply flourishing in the world is a much better posture than the posture of fear.

In the Old Testament, wisdom isn’t just a human ability that we desire. Wisdom is sometimes personified. Wisdom is poetically portrayed as a woman created by, working with, and in partnership with God. This doesn’t mean Wisdom is separate from God....

As we head back to work after the holidays, will the reality of Christmas make a difference? What if we did our work with a new awareness of God’s presence? What if we set apart a few moments in our day to offer thanks to God and commit our work to God? The celebration of Christmas may be over, but the reality of Christmas continues, touching everything in life, including our work.

As we reflect on God’s plan, we might wonder why God has chosen this particular plan. Why does God want to bring all things to unity in Christ? Why is this necessary? What is God’s ultimate purpose in this plan? If we’re going to make sense of God’s plan, it would be good to be clear on God’s why. The why begins in a story that lies behind Ephesians 1. It’s the framing story of the whole Bible, found in the first three chapters of Genesis.

According to Jesus, our “eyes” allow the light of God’s truth to enter our souls. And our “eyes,” through our words and actions, can shine the light of God into the world.

In Mark 10:25, Jesus said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. This distressed his disciples, who wondered who could be saved. When Jesus said that everything is possible with God, Peter wanted to make sure his place in the kingdom was secure. So he said, “We have left everything to follow you!” (10:28). Peter was probably hoping for a word of reassurance, something like, “Don’t worry, Peter, you’re in. You’ve earned your spot by your sacrifice.” But what he heard from Jesus must have been both comforting and perplexing.