Thoughts for the Day

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up - for the Lord Gad had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground - then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

We have already seen how the writer of Genesis (see Genesis 1, above) imagines God might have made the world, and now surprisingly at the beginning of Chapter 2 we get a new story of Creation. Here we initially see man, and later woman, in their infancy. They do not have to take any decisions and we are not told that they are tempted. They are innocent, and have yet to grow up and face the real world.

A part of growing up is being tempted, making choices, doing wrong, and suffering. From our earliest days this is true. But always we have the promise that God will rescue us if we confess, and turn to Him for help. Of course His rescue plan, might not be our rescue plan, but it will be the best one!

Heavenly Father,
You planned and created our world,
to include human beings.
Always You have been there for us,
even when we turn away from You,
and ignore or forget You.
May we remember to involve You
in all our plans
and not just when we need rescuing.
Amen.