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All Nature Entrusted to Adam and Eve, August 2
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and
over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26
, NKJV.
While they remained true to God, Adam and his companion were to bear rule
over the earth. Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. The lion
and the lamb sported peacefully around them or lay down together at their feet. The
happy birds flitted about them without fear; and as their glad songs ascended to
the praise of their Creator, Adam and Eve united with them in thanksgiving to the
Father and the Son.
The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students
receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and
were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. They
were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was
but little less than that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe—“the
wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge” (
Job 37:16
)—afforded
them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight.
The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged humanity’s study for
six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder
of all. They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the
secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan that playeth
among the waters to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, Adam was familiar.
He had given to each its name, and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of
all.
God’s glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions,
“the balancings of the clouds,” the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night—
all were open to the study of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest or stone
of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky, God’s name was
written. The order and harmony of creation spoke to them of infinite wisdom
and power. They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts
with deeper love and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude.—
Patriarchs and
Prophets, 50, 51
.
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