Day 1

I have read through the story of the creation and fall of the first man many times, and most of us are familiar with this story. Below are a couple of things that jumped out at me:

1:22 — God’s commandment to us is to increase and multiply the earth. It is the reason why our spirits seek fuller expression. It is innate in us to grow, hence the reason we are not at ease when we feel we are not growing.

1:27 — God created mankind in his image. I am what God looks like. When you create something, you are attached to it. Think of how protective you are of your child. Think about when you started a business and needed to bring in partners; it’s emotional to give a piece of something you have worked so hard to build. You are protective of these things you create. It is the same with God. He created me; he loves me; he is attached to me. That is why he would leave the 99 and come love for me. Remember this always.

1:28 — God is commanding again here to increase and multiply.

2:2 — God rested from all the work of creating he had done. It means God knows when to create and when to relax. We humans need to know this as well, particularly when it is time to rest.

2:9 — There were two trees in the Garden of Eden:

• Life
• Knowledge of good and evil

Adam and Eve were warned about the latter. This means Adam and Eve could have eaten from the tree of life instead as it wasn’t out of bounds….hmmmm.

2:15 — God took Adam to the garden to work it. It means we have to put in the work in anything God has called us to do. You cannot just set a goal and sit down wishfully; you’ve got to do the work.

3:1 — Was Eve not surprised that the serpent could speak?

3:6 — Eve saw how good the fruit looked only after conversing with the serpent. Are there conversations I am having allowing me to focus on short term pleasure or long-term consequences?

3:7–10 — The reason why God doesn’t want us to sin is actually for our sake. When we sin, guilt makes us ashamed and feel unworthy. We begin to feel the need to hide. Whenever we sin, there is an innate feeling that we can’t approach God because we think he is angry and needs some time to cool off; and we don’t even know how long that time is! The weight of sin is real.

3:12&13 — The blame game. No one wanted to accept responsibility.

3:21 — God was merciful and made better garments for Adam and Eve than the fig leaves they used.

3:22 — Why did God not want man to live forever? Is it because Adam and Eve had first eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Had they not eaten from that tree and eaten just from the tree of life, would it have been different given that the only tree they were asked not to eat from was the former? I am here thinking that perhaps the tree of good and evil had already corrupted the body, and God didn’t want the body to be eternal hence the need for it to die.