Some Christians treat salvation like a bus ticket to heaven—once you have it, you just wait until it’s time to board. But that’s not the picture Scripture gives us. The Parable of the Talents makes it clear that while we wait for Christ’s return, we are expected to work. We will give an account of how we have stewarded our lives, resources, and opportunities.

Stewardship is often reduced to tithing or the godly management of our time, talents, and treasures. Those are important, but they are still incomplete. The Bible speaks of whole-life stewardship. Kent Wilson of the Acton Institute defines it as “the faithful and efficient management of property or resources belonging to another in order to achieve the owner’s objectives.”

And that’s the key: the owner’s objectives. To understand them, we need to go back to the very beginning—to Eden.

Genesis 1 shows us God’s creative process. First, He creates something out of nothing (Genesis 1:1-2). Then in six days He forms and fills what He has made:

Days 1–3: He forms the heavens and the earth.

Days 4–6: He fills them with life and beauty.

Day 7: He rests.

At the end of each day, God calls His work “good.” But on the sixth day, after creating man and woman, He calls it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Humanity was made in His image to reflect His glory into the world and reflect the praises of creation back to Him.

Salvation restores us to that original calling. It’s not just about being rescued from sin so we can go to heaven one day—it’s about being redeemed so we can participate in God’s restoration project here and now. We are saved to step back into our vocation as image-bearers, co-laborers with God, cultivating His creation and advancing His kingdom.

This changes how we see “waiting” for Christ’s return. We’re not meant to sit idly, guarding what we have. We’re called to be faithful and fruitful—shaping culture, serving others, building lives, and managing all He has entrusted to us in a way that fulfills His purpose. And that purpose is clear: that all creation would know and glorify Him (Psalm 8).

While we wait, we work. Not to earn our salvation, but because salvation has already set us free to live out the reason we were created in the first place—to bring glory to the Owner in everything we do.