"bible stories" margin notes on genesis 1

[prismaticbleed]

All of Creation came from LOVE: from the very Heart of God!!
Reflect on this: WE'RE part of that Creation, too.

Genesis 1:16-- "He made the stars also."
That staggering simplicity-- I love it so much. "Also." Trillions. Unfathomable space. Blazing incandescent spheres. And it's a bookend sentence! The cosmic jewelbox scattered like so many snowdust diamonds across the velvet-deep blackness of sky, brought down from lofty heights to an even greater grandeur of smallness, to a tiny precious sentence in the story of all things, a single gem of amazing truth nestled in the Hands of our God. "He made the stars also." Effortless, limitless. What a testament to the power & glory of God! And yet... He calls them all by name.Trillions. Each one a loving, deliberate dot of His divine paintbrush. Neither time nor space can describe such tenderness. All it can muster, is those five awestruck words.

Science and religion DO agree. They embrace & illuminate the depths of each other.

Think about the 5th Day for a second. Both the hummingbird and the blue whale came from the mind of God. Pleiosaurs & pigeons. Juncos & jellyfish. Thousands! Every tiny scale, every delicate feather, was formed & painted by Him in the deep shimmering mystery of chromosomal color pattern. Every caterpillar that melts away before resurrecting in gorgeous hues, every mantis shrimp whose eyes & fists defy human comprehension-- God imagined it all. We are surrounded by the living, singing, swimming, fantastic thoughts of His Joyous Heart and do we realize this? Pause for a moment and just... look. Listen. Love. 

Man is greater than all preceding works.
Think about all that entails. It's mindblowing. 
It's enough to bring you, trembling, to your knees.
Tigers, elephants, oxen, giraffes... herons and ibises, doves and cockatiels... octopi, sharks and eels, dinosaurs, snakes... moths and bees and water bears, nudibranchs and trees. Roses, daisies, apple blooms, lilies, poppies, mushrooms too-- stars and moons and nebulae... none compare to you.
Man alone has the breath of God.
Man alone can love Him back.
Man alone can choose Him. 

"Without the Spirit of God permeating us, we are not really alive at all, but just inanimate clay."
That is PROFOUND. We are dirt without God, literally! But WITH Him...!

"In [the Garden] grew every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food."
"Give us bread, but give us roses"...how beautiful that God feeds both our body and soul.

Man is made in the image of God by virtue of His Breath-- His Spirit. But that very God-- Creator, Word, Spirit-- is TRIUNE! He is never alone, by the very Truth of His Being!! Therefore, man must not exist alone either... but in the trinity of familial love!!!

"If you love what you work at, and love who you work for, then your work is not labor, but the sweet service of love's return." Good work is invariably directed towards God, for the love of God, because we love God. Everything that lacks this purpose of holy love is empty drudgery.

I always wonder why God said they couldn't taste only, but Eve included touch. Perhaps her tender, sensitive heart understood that intimate connection, that to touch is to taste-- that sensual perception is already a breach of border, an immediate knowing. Intuitively, she was aware of this risk, and refused to even court temptation so. This is wisdom. We would do well to remember this too. 

"The punishment attached to this order showed how important it was."
!!! Reflect on this. It still applies to life today!!
We fear heavy punishments because deep down, we fear having disobeyed a commandment so vital. There is contrition baked into all terror of chastisement-- we dread that break in our familial harmony, with God and with His entire Creation.

♡to love God is Life indeed♡

"God could not force Adam or Eve to obey. This was a limitation that He had placed upon Himself."
It is the limitation of LOVE; love cannot force OR be forced.
Rebellion forces. It pushes & shoves. It disobeys. This is unlove. 
Rebellion HATES humility & submission to God!

"[Satan] told her that the punishment God had warned of would not happen. He made it sound as if God were afraid that His Own Creation-- man-- might rival Him."
He called God a LIAR!
Was he PROJECTING? "Takes one to know one." Fear = no love. Satan feared that Man would rival HIM!! He was fueled by envy and HATE-- what true beauty he had lost through pride, he wanted to destroy in man, for spite.

"Eve was no match for him."
NEITHER ARE WE. Satan is a fallen ANGEL. We are dirt!! That's why we MUST PRAY for help!!

"No doubt she used the same words on her husband that the serpent had used on her."
NEVER repeat the words of the devil! Do you? Think about that. How many of his lies are you automatically perpetuating? Combat this by studying, sharing, and loving the TRUTH: the Word of God!!

"Nothing is lonelier than solitary guilt."
"It is not good for man to be alone." Sin cuts you off from relationship with God. And this lonely state is SO deeply unnatural, it triggers this horrible chain reaction: "misery loves company."

"And he did eat... their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked."
Absolute OPPOSITE of the Eucharist. 

"What they really wanted was a shield or a screen from the sin of using their God-given free will to defy God. For this they knew the fig leaves were not enough, and so they hid themselves from the Presence of the Lord God..."
Sin shocks the psyche, really. We try to deny it & run from it because the reality of it, the fact of DISOBEYING GOD, is so terrifying I don't think we CAN fully grasp it or we WOULD die... ironically, Christ gives us the ability to do this and LIVE, through Him and His Hope, but that's a grace too profound, and too early, to discuss here.

We throw blame like a ticking time bomb. 

"God did not intend to let man stay alienated from Him forever."
Of course not; He loves us. He always has, and always will. 

Take note... the angel with the flaming sword does not hate Adam and Eve. They only despise sin, and are obeying God's just & righteous mandate of reality that sin cannot ever coexist with God. There is no cruelty or malice here, only justice. 
I wonder... was there sorrow? Pity? So many of their own fell; they knew the heartache & terror both.
I bet the angels, too, hoped in God's Promise of Redemption for Man.