“Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26

With the knowledge Adam and Eve gained through their study of God’s creation, they would begin the task of tending the world, according to God’s model. Over the course of six days, God worked with the raw materials He had made, restructuring and developing them. Light was separated from dark, the waters above the heavens from the waters below, the dry land from the sea. Separating and breaking down His works, God made the Creation reveal His glories more each day.

This was the same type of restructuring work that Adam and Eve were to do. There was soil to till and farm, grain to harvest and grind into flour, fibers to be woven into cloth, dyes to extract from plants, deeply buried ores to mine and refine into precious metals, trees to cut and mill, flocks to tend, and rivers, seas, and distant lands to explore. What an honor and a responsibility it would be to take the works of God’s hands into their own hands!

As God’s representatives, Adam and Eve were to develop and care for the world the way God did, bringing forth its potential. This would entail caring for it, not destroying or squandering it. Though their work would be hard, it would be deeply satisfying because they were workers by nature. God is a worker; and as His image-bearers, Adam and Eve, too, were workers who would find great joy in working for God’s glory.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Deuteronomy 5:13

Fishermen, Nazare, Portugal — Goatherder, Kashmir, India — Winnowing Grain, Bamian, Afghanistan

Traveling in the Himalayan foothills of the Vale of Kashmir, it is common to share the road with herds of goats, which are raised for their world-famous pashmina (or cashmere) wool. Aware of the long shadows cast by the early morning light, I scrambled up the road bank to capture this “shadow picture” of the goats and their herder as they passed by.
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men. Colossians 3:23-24 nasb

Plowing, Swat Valley, Pakistan — Huasso and Sheep, Centinela, Chile — Winnowing near Jodhpur, India

Farming in India and most of southwestern Asia is rarely mechanized. It is common to see workers winnowing grain by hand, but it never fails to excite my photographic senses. Often, however, the surrounding environment is so cluttered that it is difficult to get a decent picture of this colorful activity. My answer to this dilemma was to find a different point of view that would simplify the background and thereby strengthen the visual story. In this scene, the easiest way to achieve a clean perspective was to get down on the ground and shoot upward, using the sky as a seamless backdrop. An added benefit of using this technique is that it usually evokes a smile, if not an incredulous laugh, from the subject.
An excellent wife who can find? She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. Proverbs 31:10, 15-16, 27, 31 esv

Wash Day, Udaipur, India — Picking Grapes, Turfan, China — Sweeping, Jaiselmeer, Rajasthan, India

At 550 feet below sea level, the Turfan Depression in China’s Xinjiang region is the second-lowest spot on earth. Extremely hot in summer, it is irrigated by a series of ancient, underground channels that carry water from the snowcapped Tian Shan range some fifty miles to the north. The result is a desert oasis that is perfectly suited to the cultivation of grapes, which hang luxuriously from arbors throughout the area. Here a young woman cuts a large clump of grapes for the enjoyment of her guests.