Dignity of Work – Celebrating Labor Day

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Psalm 128:2 ESV

Happy Labor Day! This great three-day holiday is often known as the end-of-summer or the best deals on furniture and mattress sales events. Cookouts, parades, and parties mark Labor Day throughout the United States. However, over the last couple of decades, Labor Day has also become the time when the world turns into a pumpkin. If you can eat it, drink it or smell it, there is probably a pumpkin version. Starbucks announced that the Pumpkin Spice Latte is out. “What can be said about the Pumpkin Spice Latte that hasn’t already been written before? The segment-creating drink that not only launched an army of imitators and allowed pumpkin spice to infiltrate every facet of our lives, but also turned August into a seasonal product battleground, is returning for its 19th year in 2022.”  (1440 Daily Digest) Since I’m not a great fan of the PSL, I will take my calories in a Dunkin’ pumpkin donut!

Officially, Labor Day is a national holiday signed into law by President Grover Cleveland on June 28, 1894. According to History.com, “Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19^th century…In the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living. Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories, and mines across the country.”

We have undoubtedly seen considerable shifts in the workplace since the first Labor Day celebration. These include tremendous changes in the laws, attitudes, types of work, and even the workforce. However, there is one pivotal component that has not changed and that is the value and dignity of labor. Martin Luther King, Jr said that “all labor that uplifts humanity has dignity.”  Generations before Dr. King wrote his words, the writer of Proverbs said, “You have seen a person skilled in his work—he will take his position before kings; he will not take his position before obscure people. “(22:29)

“What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow.”—Martin Luther

God valued the dignity and honor of work. His assignment to us from the beginning was to partner with Him in caring for His creation. “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.  They will be yours for food.” (Gen 1:28-29 NET). Tim Keller writes that “The material creation was made by God to be developed, cultivated, and cared for in an endless number of ways through human labor. But even the simplest of these ways is important. Without them all, human life cannot flourish.”

Throughout Scripture, we learn about worship, prayer, obedience, being a good neighbor, sharing the Good News, and lots of other important things for life, but there is also a major focus on work. There is a sense of pride, dignity, and accomplishment that comes from doing a job well. As one Proverb tells us “One who is slack in work is close kin to a vandal.” (18:9)

Work can and does bring inner joy as well as provide for the needs of our families. We are told in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (2:24-25)

Genesis gives us a beautiful insight into God’s work of creation.  God spoke the sun, moon, and earth into creation with a word. God divided the sea and land with a word. God set in motion the delicate balance of life with a word.  “And God said” and with His word set creation into motion. However, when He came to mankind instead of a word, he said, “let us make humankind in our image.” Make, it was as if God reached down into the earth, got his hands dirty as he picked up the dirt, and shaped his beloved children to give them life. Similar to a potter who painstakingly works over the spinning wheel shaping and reshaping his art, so it was with God. Could it be at the end of the day when “God saw everything that he had made,” he looked at the dirt under his fingernails and then lovingly said, “indeed, it was very good”?

As you enjoy the Labor Day activities with family and friends, also take some time to reflect upon the gift of work. Whatever you do daily, thank God for the opportunities you find to bless others, provide for your family, and to make a difference in this world.

Adam tended the garden with his hands and yet with the same hands, mourned his disobedience.

Noah got splinters in his hands as he built an ark to save his family but then used his hands to build an altar to worship God.

David used his hands to fight Goliath in battle yet used the same hands to lovingly compose the Psalms.

Paul used his hands to carefully stitch the tent material as he shared the hope of Christ with the lost and with the same hands passionately wrote letters on how to live life for Jesus.

Jesus the carpenter used his hands to build doors until the time came for him to open the doors of salvation as nails were driven into his hands.

Labor Day is not considered a religious holiday but maybe it should be.  Remember that Jesus got his hands dirty for you and me! “Whatever you are doing, work at it with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not for people.” Colossians 3:23.

Thank you for sharing the Love of Christ through the labor of your hands to make our world a better place.

God is great!