Ephesians 2:10  
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do. (CSB)

He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. (MSG)

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We moved our younger daughter’s family to their new home last weekend. Our two-year-old granddaughter has been off balance for the last couple of months while their house was prepared to be sold. 

Most of her toys were boxed up and stored at our house. Every day, she came home to some new blank space where once there was furniture or other possessions. She responded to these new realities each day with a surprised, “Oh no!”

Now she is in her new “big house” with all of her toys and familiar furniture and things. She loves it. She has a new sofa to jump on. She has a bigger yard to play in. She is so excited to be home. 

Our daughter is definitely her grandmother’s heir. Mom is a certified Master Gardener. Like her mother before her, she loves flower gardens, vegetable gardens, and houseplants. One person assisting with the move remarked that she had never seen so many houseplants. Our daughter loves beautifying the world and her home with green and colorful growing things. 

Houseplants warm up a room. They make people feel more comfortable and relaxed. During COVID when we had so many meetings on Zoom, we were encouraged to add indoor plants in the frame to achieve similar results. 

A couple of articles over the last few years have disparaged American’s obsession with green yards and extensive landscaping. Don’t listen to those killjoys. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the assignment to take care of it, which included all the beauty God’s mind imagined and his hand created. 

Well-tended yards and living spaces are part and parcel of God’s assignment. Our granddaughter is thriving in her new surroundings in part because of those things that make houses feel even more like home. 

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this verse in The Message captures some of the mandate we have to beautify the world. 

_He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing._

Lives beautified by God’s grace and empowered by God’s goodness make the world a more welcoming place. The kindness of God (verse 7) overflows our lives to enrich the lives of others. 

Live out the ongoing mandate from God. Live a beautiful life that beautifies everything and every place it touches. Begin by building an “Oh yes!” home. 

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I will live God’s mandate to tend a beautiful life, a beautiful home, and a beautiful world.

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Our Father, may your kindness shape our lives so deeply that we cannot help but carry your beauty everywhere we go. Use us however you see fit to warm up the atmosphere with your grace. Give refreshment to everyone we encounter from the overflow of your goodness. Amen.