As we enter the last long weekend of the summer, our thoughts focus on a return to fall activities, children back to school, and unless we are retired, a return to a regular work week, with the memories of summer holidays behind us.

The old adage goes that you cannot avoid taxes and death. You could probably add labour to that as well. Just consider that unless you’ve inherited enough to keep you with enough money to live, you’re going to have to go out and work for a living.

It wasn’t always that way. In Genesis we hear that God took Adam, and put him in the garden to work it and keep it. Now the work God intended was that Adam be a caretaker of the Garden of Eden, not that Adam had to work to put food on the table. God would provide that bountifully. But with the fall into sin all people would have to work hard. God told Adam it would not be easy: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. (Genesis 3:17-19).

Have you ever stopped to think that however we labour, whatever we do as our vocation, we are serving God and our neighbour, not just working to provide for our families. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer saying “Give us this day our daily bread” God does God does provide our daily bread. He does it by the means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, the baker who made the flour into bread, the person who prepared our meal. Then there are the truck drivers who hauled the grain, the warehouse people, the wholesale distributors, the stock boys, and the lady at the checkout counter. Also playing their part are the bankers, futures investors, advertisers, lawyers, agricultural scientists, mechanical engineers, and every other player in the country’s economic system. All of these were instrumental in enabling you to eat your morning slice of toast.

God is caring for our physical needs, as with every other need we have, preserving our lives through His gifts. And He does so by using other human beings. It is still God who is responsible for giving us our daily bread. God has chosen to work through human

beings, who, in their diff erent capacities and according to their diff erent talents, serve each other.

When God blesses us, He almost always does it through other people. The ability to read God’s Word is a precious blessing. But reading is not an ability that came fully formed in our young minds. It required the vocation of teachers. God protects us through the cop on the beat and the whole legal system. He gives us beauty and meaning through artists. He lets us travel through the ministry of auto workers, mechanics, road crews, and airline employees. He keeps us clean through the work of garbage collectors, plumbers, and sanitation workers. The fast food worker, the inventor, the clerical assistant, the scientist, the accountant, the musician all have high callings, used by God to bless and serve His people.

As you return to your work, your vocation, think about how what you are doing is not just putting food on the table. If you get frustrated with your labour, if you don’t really like your job, just stop for a moment and remember how you are serving God and serving your neighbour. Consider that you are able to work because you went to school where teachers served by educating you. If you’ve been ill, thank God that He provides health care workers to make you well again so that you could return to work.

This Labour Day do more than just enjoy the holiday and breathe a sigh of relief that your children are going back to school. Remember how God uses us, His people to serve Him and each other. Praise Him for His great love and pray for His continued blessings upon your life.