The human project of bringing wise order to the garden is not yet complete. We are called now to redeem Creation and bring forth new bits of New Creation.

And redemption, of course, doesn’t mean throwing away what we have and starting over; it means fixing what we have and continuing on. The possibility of redemption is rooted in the power of God at Creation and demonstrated by the power of God through the resurrection.

God grants life.

And what does all this have to do with us? Everything! It means that God has not abandoned us, or our town, or our friends to despair and jobless unfulfillment. It means that God is still working for us, working in us, to bring something beautiful out of what we have now. And it is our job to work with God in that regard.