The parallels between God's creation in B'reshit and the Israelite's work of creation in T'rumah is a beautiful example of how our work in the world is meant to mirror God's.
Every job has its tools. In my industry (at least, back in the old days), there were pencils for students, chalk/white boards for teachers, and books for everyone. Such tools had benefits and limitations. When used together, they had the potential to generate profound illumination.
In a path-breaking1993 work entitled Sisters in the Wilderness: the Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, Delores Williams sets forth a theology of the wilderness centered in the experiences of African American women. Building from the particular and speaking with universal resonance, Williams identifies a wilderness ethic grounded in the values of: survival, relationship and resilience. For Williams, the wilderness is a place of both struggle and possibility - a place in which Hagar, a slave cast out of her home, is rescued by God so that she can ultimately mother her own nation into being.
Torah Commentary
The Secret Sauce of Community
Who Was the Mishkan Meant For?
“Tools of Gold”
Building with God in the Wilderness: A Theology of Just and Loving Communities