Dress It and Keep It

Written by Carolyn Warvel

Bible Reference:

"And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Gen. 2:15, KJV

Printable Bible Verse Cards - (Younger children) Print out onto card stock, write the Bible verse on the cards and make copies. (KJV or NIV)

Teaching Concept: God created the world for our enjoyment. It is our responsibility to take care of it. In this lesson children learn ways they can help take care of God's wonderful creation.

Early Arrivals Activity

1. "Our Earth, Dress It and Keep It" Badges

What you will need: Card stock, safety pins, tape, colored pencils or markers.

What to do:

1. Before class print out the patterns onto card stock. (Black and White Pattern or Color Pattern). (Printing Problems?)

2. In class have your children color the pictures, cut them out, and tape safety pins to the back to make Badges.

Collage Poster

2. Make a "Dress it and Keep it" Collage Poster

What you will need: Nature magazines, glue sticks, bright printer paper, large pieces of construction paper, and scissors.

What to do:

1. Before class print out the Bible Verse Patterns (KJV or NIV) onto bright colors of paper and cut them apart. In class have your children glue pictures from nature magazines onto a large sheet of construction paper. If you don't have the large size, tape two sheets together. If you have younger children precut pictures and just let them pick pictures they would like to glue on. If you have older children, they may enjoy ripping the pictures out and then gluing them on. Have them add the Bible verse to their collage poster.

2. Color a Color-by-Number Picture - (Older Children)

Before the Color Guides using a color printer. You don't have to print one for every child. They can share them. Print out the Numbered Picture Patterns KJV or NIV and make copies. Older children will enjoy trying to match up the crayons with the color guide and coloring the matching numbered shapes on the pattern.

3. Color a Landscape Picture - If you have younger children have them color the picture and then glue it to a piece of colored paper. They can then glue things from nature on the colored paper frame or picture. You can use pressed leaves and flowers, acorns, seeds, small sticks, pebbles, sea shells, etc. (KJV or NIV)

The Lesson

Most of us are familiar with the story about how God created the earth and the first man, but do you know what God did after he created Adam? (Let your children respond and then have them open their Bibles and read Genesis 2:15. "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." )

God placed Adam in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. What does it means to "dress it and keep it". (Let your children respond.)

To dress it means to cultivate, or to work to improve the growth of the plants. That made Adam the very first gardener.

Adam was also put in the garden to "keep it". To keep something means to keep watch over it, guard or protect it, to maintain it in a usable condition, to preserve it or attend to it, or to be in charge of it. In other words, God made Adam responsible for the garden and everything in it.

Adam's job was pretty much the same as gardener's jobs today. At first Adam's job was a lot easier than a gardener's jobs today, but when Adam and Eve sinned the whole earth was changed. Thorns and thistles began to grow, and disease and death came into the world. Adam's sin affected the whole earth. (Gen. 3:17-18 and Romans 8:19-21)

Man's sinful nature also has a big impact on the environment today. Can you think of ways man's sinful nature might have a negative impact on the earth?

Disrespect for God's Creation

People who do not know God, do not respect his creation. They don't care if they destroy it, pollute it, or waste it because they don't understand how amazing it is. For example, when the settlers first came across the plains some people killed the bison just for the fun of it, almost wiping out the species because they were easy targets. Those people had no respect for what God had created. Christians should have respect for all of God's creation. We have learned through observation and science that every creature is important to keep nature in balance, even mosquitos, worms, and bees.

Selfish Ambition

People who don't know God can be very selfish. If a person thinks more about himself and what he can gain, he may not think about or care about the consequences of his actions. For example, a business owner who is only concerned about making money may create a lot of pollution to make a product, and not think about how the waste can be disposed of properly, or about replacing the resources his company uses. Early trappers would trap all the animals they could find to make a profit from the fur. They didn't care about, or think about, putting the species in danger of extinction. Early paper makers would clear cut trees in large areas which caused erosion. They may not have cared or realized the damage they were causing.

Not Being Satisfied with What We Have

Sin in our lives can make us greedy and unsatisfied with what we have. Always wanting more and buying more stuff that we don't really need can effect the environment by producing more garbage, using up natural resources, creating unnecessary pollution. etc.

Lack of Knowledge

Much damage was done and is done to the earth because of a lack of knowledge. People just didn't understand what they are doing is harmful. When national parks were first established in the US park rangers thought they had to protect the trees and animals by putting out every fire that started. (Most fires start by natural causes - lightening strikes). It wasn't until later that they began to realize that it was doing more harm than good. Through study and observation they learned that the forest needed wild fires. They found out that fires actually stimulated plant growth. (See National Park Service Web Site.) Job 12:7-10 tells us to ask the animals, birds and the earth and and they will teach us. Scientists have learned much from studying nature, but they have a lot more to learn. Environmentalist have urged Congress to make laws to help protect the earth and the animals. Many people think that this is a new concept, but God gave the Israelites many laws concerning the earth and how to protect it.

Taking Care of the Land - God made laws about how they should use the land for cultivation. He said that they must let the land rest for a year every seventh year. God knew that they Earth needed time to replenish itself. (Lev. 25:2-5

Caring for Animals - He also made laws concerning the protection of animals. If someone did something to cause another man's animals to suffer that person had to pay the animal's owner for the damage. Ex. 21:33-34

God even had rules on how to deal with lost animals. He told the Israelites that If you find a stray animal you shouldn't ignore it, but try to take it back to its owner. If you don't know who owns it, you should take it to your house and keep it until you can find the owner and then give it back.

Caring for Plants - God made laws to encourage people to be careful about how they might effect the environment. He demanded that if a person destroys the property of someone else, he had to pay him back for what he destroyed, even if he didn't mean to do it. Ex. 22:6

Caring about Trees - God cared about the trees; he made a law saying that armies could not cut down the trees around a city when they wanted to take it over. Lev. 19:23-25

It is important to have laws and regulations concerning the environment to protect our earth from people who do not care. Concerned people have done a lot to bring about change, but we have to be careful not to make protecting the earth too important. God wants us to be concerned and involved, but we must be careful when we support organizations that put the earth above God or worship the earth. If you are involved in environment issues, ask yourself, "Am I making this more important than helping people, telling people the Good News, or improving people's lives. For example, are you more concerned about saving some bunnies or the salvation of lost people?

The earth is important, but it is not what sustains us, only God can do that.

Discussion Question:

How Can We be Good Gardeners to Tend and Keep the Earth? The first and most important thing we can do is to realize our sin and ask God to forgive us and help us to do better, and to learn about how God wants us to take care of his creation.

Prayer

Lord, forgive us if we have been wasteful and not respectful or your creation. Help us not to be wasteful, and to be satisfied with and thankful for what we have and to take care of what we have. Amen.

Activities

1. Group Activity - Break your children up into four groups. Assign each group a different subject - Reuse, Recycle, Reduce, and Replace. Have each group come up with ideas on how they can help the environment by reusing, recycling, reducing or replacing. Have each group share with the class what they came up with. They may also want to make posters that show what they have discussed. They can use these Recycle Patterns to make headings for their posters.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information or storage retrieval system, except for local church or school use only. This copyright notice must be included on all copies. Requests for permission to copy this material for any other uses should be addressed to Carolyn Warvel, 588 Duran Street, Henderson, NV 89015 or e-mail me at care@daniellesplace.com

Comments

We would love to hear your comments about this lesson. If you taught this lesson, we would love to hear how it went, if you changed anything, added anything, what age you taught and was it appropriate. Any comments that would help others teach this lesson are welcome.

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