Day 5 The Woman You Gave Me

Day 5 The Woman You Gave Me...

12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  Genesis 3:12

I hate being wrong, especially when I chose poorly. I do not enjoy making mistakes, but I hate it when my own turpitude reveals itself. I carefully foster the delusion that, fundamentally, I’m a good guy. After all, I don’t commit any of the “biggies” …very often. And like Adam, when confronted with my depravity, I blame others. It’s a rather astounding moment when you think about what Adam does. When the Almighty questions him regarding his sin, Adam responds by blaming God. “The woman you gave to be with me…” (italics added). It’s really your fault God. You gave her to me and look what happened.

We struggle with the concept of holiness, thinking that holiness is something akin to being really good, like my Mother or Grandmother, or perhaps a very young child. Having raised three children, I can tell you that rebellion starts much sooner than we like to admit. Holiness is not being really nice all the time. Holiness is set apart for something fundamentally different. During incarnation, holiness intrudes upon our messy and broken world in the form of an infant child. God is holy, and to see Him is to die, something the ancient Israelites well understood. But God, knowing that we could not, made the journey for us. He shouldered the blame and became one of us, enduring all of the mean rottenness of our post-garden world. 

Day 4 Stewardship

Day 4 Stewardship

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 2:15 English Standard Version

Interestingly, after God breathed out this world, shaping man with his hands out of the dust and breathing life into him, He places us in His creation to keep it. This passage and similar passages in Genesis 1, often referred to as “Dominion” passages, remind us of the stewardship nature of our place in creation. Man, sitting at the apex of creation, exerts power over all that he sees. In fact, most of us rarely consider our role as stewards; instead, we view ourselves as owners with the right to use creation as we see fit. Oddly, many of the societies and cultures we view as backward or underdeveloped understand stewardship of nature better. They appreciate our transient nature and find the concept of land-ownership alien. However, we view nature as something we own and exploit as we desire.

Almost everywhere one looks, we fail at stewardship. We consume vast quantities of resources with little thought to the future. We alter the landscape to suit our own desires, without considering the effects we have on other humans and the garden. While I’m certain that Paul references the sinful and fallen state of creation, it is good to remember that “all of creation groans,” longing for restoration (Romans 8:22). During the lock-down in the early days of the pandemic, while we sat at home, the garden rebounded, showing a surprising resilience. In a variety of ways, the garden blossomed with greater vigor, reminding me that better things are possible.

So, this Christmas season as I sit looking out at my backyard, draped in the mourning rags of fall with wizened sticks reminding me of Spring and Summer glory, I wonder. I wonder what kind of gardener God wants. How would He remake me? How would He have me treat nature differently? How can I order my steps so that more of us can enjoy the bounty of His garden? How can I think of others? How can I join in God’s ongoing act of creation and redemption?

Day 3, Orderly

1 In the beginning, God created everything: the heavens above and the earth below. Here’s what happened: 2 At first the earth lacked shape and was totally empty, and a dark fog draped over the deep while God’s spirit-wind hovered over the surface of the empty waters. Then there was the voice of God. Genesis 1:1-2 The Voice

As a professional soldier, turned English teacher, I love good order and discipline. I like papers turned in on time. I embrace the orderliness of the Oxford comma. I loathe empty spots in my gradebook. Gazing out over a classroom with students busy at their tasks creates a sense of contentment and rightness within my spirit. As a commander in the Army, I always enjoyed soldiers arrayed in formation. The common shapes stretching out in ordered ranks and files told me that all was right in my little piece of the military world. Some portion of my heart, soul, or spirit longs for order. Genesis reminds us that God shares a similar desire.

We get precious few details about creation, mostly that God spoke, and amazing things happened. Sadly, instead of embracing the marvelous wonder of the moment, we’ve turned this great wonder into some sort of spiritual litmus test, a grid with which to screen out unfaithful undesirables. But this stands out, God speaks order out of chaos. In some fashion, God wants things just so. He wants form and structure, not shapeless disarray.

As I gaze out across the landscape of our world, I see brokenness. I see great disorder. I see confusion. I find that I’m a scattered, disordered man. In almost every arena of human endeavor chaos reigns. And our chaos spills out marring the beautiful creation that sprang from the mind of God. His children suffer so from our disorder. I find that, even my little parochial school, chaos often reigns in the lives of my students. They endure pain they did not create. Their path twists and turns through a confusing morass. But God did not visit this disarray upon them. Sometimes they choose poorly. Sometimes their parents chose poorly. But instead, God chooses to break into the disorder through His son, the incarnate word. 

Day 2 It Was Good

31 Then God surveyed everything He had made, savoring its beauty and appreciating its goodness. Evening gave way to morning. That was day six. Genesis 1:31 The Voice

God surveyed and savored. As someone intimately involved in preparing Holiday Meals, I understand surveying and savoring. Today, Christopher and Megan joined us for a brunch and to put up our traditional Christmas decorations. It was a cold rainy fall day when the knock came at our door. Amid all the hellos, hugs, and jacket takings I enjoyed the comments on the smells filling the house. It was a simple brunch of a sticky-bun type of pull-apart bread, Pigs-in-blankets, and coffee. Yet, as I surveyed the set table with my available family savoring the smells emanating from the warm food, I enjoyed satisfaction and warmth, something akin to what God felt after He finished creation. Everyone that engages in creation of any type knows that feeling of pleasure when things turn out just so. We step back and relish the moment, and in some small way join the Lord in the joy of creativity. Yet, there is a tinge of bitterness in creation.

God knew that let there be light, set in motion events that would claim the life of His son. Eden presaged Bethlehem. Despite the depredations of the cross, He pressed ahead with creation. What is it about this world and His children that makes the surveying and savoring worth the journey to the manger? How can it be worth all that? Walking the path from Eden to Bethlehem, the path to the incarnation, reveals much about the Lord we worship. And often, it uncovers more and deeper questions. 

Day 1 It All Started Somewhere

1 Before time itself was measured, the Voice was speaking.

    The Voice was and is God.

2 This celestial Word remained ever present with the Creator;

3     His speech shaped the entire cosmos.

Immersed in the practice of creating,

    all things that exist were birthed in Him.

4 His breath filled all things

    with a living, breathing light—

5 A light that thrives in the depths of darkness,

    blazes through murky bottoms.

It cannot and will not be quenched. John 1:1-5 The Voice

In an amazing burst of creativity, the Word stepped out and remarkable things happened. Time itself began its inexorable march into another new creation, a new land, the future. The Word conceived of and brought forth the cosmos we understand as our universe. We do not know what exists outside this creation. We truly comprehend very little of our own existence. So much without and within remains unexplored and unknown. But He knows. He envisaged all that we see and touch. The minute particles that compose an atom, His. The stars, dust, and other stellar phenomena, His. The minerals that make up the dust of this earth, His. All the creatures that print the dust or cut the ocean waves, His. We are His.

Yet, He knew. He understood that from the moment He spoke, and the hands of time started swinging grief would be His as well. He understood and accepted the inevitable. His creation, so carefully and lovingly crafted would turn, turn on Him, despising His love. The resultant darkness threatened to overwhelm and engulf all that He deemed precious. So, before He spoke, He had a plan. Woven deeply into the fabric of creation, His Love, His Word, His Light, shines. It burst forth in the beginning. It shone brightly in a rude manger. Undimmed, it shines today.