“The average man cannot cut clay into the shape of a man; but he can cut earth into the shape of a garden; and though he arranges it with red geraniums and blue potatoes in alternate straight lines, he is still an artist; because he has chosen. The average man cannot paint the sunset whose colors he admires; but he can paint his own house with what color he chooses, and though he paints it pea green with pink spots, he is still an artist; because that is his choice. Property is merely the art of the democracy. It means that every man should have something that he can shape in his own image, as he is shaped in the image of heaven. But because he is not God, but only a graven image of God, his self-expression must deal with limits.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World
A man must tend his own garden because it really is his to tend to and because God has told him to do it. Animated clay must act upon inanimate clay according to the commands of Christ. No man can make land, but any man can make his land something that it wasn't before. What that something is should come from what God has commanded, but because we live in a fallen world where the animated clay presumes the place of its Animator, we see men attempting to create the world in their own image according to their muddied desires. Men were made to shape things. God charged man with the task of ruling and subduing the entire earth. God fashioned him for such a time and for such a purpose as that. His ability may be limited because he is not God, but his responsibility is limitless because it comes from God. He has not forgotten His charge and He does not abandon His charges. He loves man, remembers His frame, forgives his sin, and commands him to get back to the good works prepared beforehand for him.
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