Genesis Inspirations...

In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth. -Genesis 1:1

I opened my Bible to Genesis this morning. After a long and hot summer of feeling like there has been minimal time for meditation, I felt like I was in search of renewal; a new start; a more organized approach to my morning Bible pages. Why not start at the beginning? I read Genesis one, one verse following another until the end of the chapter.

God had an inspiration, it seems. Let us make man in our image. Let us set him to have dominion over the land and the creatures we create. And so God did. But first before he created man, he created the most beautiful situation to place them in.

Light...He spoke light into existence. It illuminates my heart this morning to think that LIGHT was the first thing he spoke into existence. Next came the garden. Lovingly created in perfection: grass, trees, herbs. A sky and lights and stars to create order and rhythm to the days and the seasons. The unblemished perfection of that beginning was awesome.

And when the situation was ideal, God created man. Male and female, both perfect in their replication of God's image, they were set to tend this beautiful garden of life. After they were given tasks to accomplish, that first chapter closes on this perfect scene. My heart wants to stay there with them, roaming through a garden that was designed and placed by the Master Gardener. I want to bask in the perfect light that warmed the scene. It was a perfection that we have never experienced.

Next I turned the pages of my Bible to the first chapter of the New Testament: Matthew one. With confession, I admit I skimmed throught the recording of the generations from Abraham to Joseph. My finite mind can easily grasp Joseph's uncertainty as I read about the dilemma he faces when his young girlfriend is found to be with child. But an angel comes to comfort him, telling him the child is of the Holy Ghost. Did Joseph even know who the Holy Ghost was, I wondered? What was his comprehension of such a deity? The proof is in the following report. Joseph rose up from his encounter, and kept Mary espoused to himself until the baby was born. His obedience is complete when he names the young child JESUS, just as he had been instructed to do.

Reading the geneses of these two testaments, I go forth to this summer day with much to ponder. May the inspiration of the morning linger through overgrown cucumber patches and big batches of baking. As I sit at my sewing machine, crafting school dresses for the coming year, may it revisit me with its inspiration.

Wishing you an inspiration filled day in whatever garden of life you find yourself meandering through.

-Vanessa