April 30, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

(Genesis 2.25)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Several days ago, I spoke of the Creation Story using the illustration of “brought out.” God called out one part of creation from another as if slowly revealing the whole that was at the beginning. I have long considered that the “void and without meaning” offered at the “beginning” was not an absence of substance. Instead, it was a lack of continuity, integrity and connectivity. There were all the ingredients and building blocks available in a hodge podge fashion but without order and instruction, meaning and purpose, it was simply chaos. God “called out” of that chaos with a spiritual command of order. Out of what seemed to be “nothing” became something in an ever-increasing sense of complexity and image which is, of course, God Himself. We continue to see that theme of being “called out” across the stories of Israel herself. We see it especially in three transitional stories: the Flood, Liberation from Egypt and the Return from Babylon. In each of these epic stories, God’s chosen (those who chose to believe in God as Deliverer) were “called out,” delivered from a judgment captivity and set into a new order of freedom. Out of chaos came life by the reality of righteousness. God’s peels back the layers of substance to release the essence of true freedom- righteousness.

The pivotal moment in the faith history of Christianity is the ongoing revelation of that “called out/brought out” theme. We know it as “Resurrection.” We hear of the preview and foreshadowing of resurrection in the story of Lazarus. No, not the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man which speaks to the consequences of the rich who ignore their duty to care for the poor and suffering of Israel. There the rich man is bound in Hell, or in Gehenna, after death. On the same day the rich man died, the poor man, Lazarus, was found in Heaven resting in the bosom of Abraham. He was called out of sickness and ostracism into the peace of God. There is another Lazarus “called out” story, however. It is the one where the good friend of Jesus, the brother of Mary and Martha, had died. He had been dead four days before Jesus arrived to bring comfort and hope to Lazarus’s sisters. Jesus “called out” Lazarus from the grave and restored him to his family and his community. It was given to show the power of God in a “life and death” situation. It was a revelation of hope given to the disciples and all those who saw it that they might believe the same could be true one day for one whom they loved dearly. Of course, they were lost in their grief because the One through whom the miracle was worked was the One who now was dead in the tomb. What they failed to realize, or at least remember, was that God not Jesus was the author of the miracle. Jesus was the vehicle by which God’s power was conveyed and the situation received its intervention. This is the lesson of faith and the power of righteousness.

This is, for me, the lesson that was first shared in the Creation Story of Genesis 2. None of creation can happen without the divine intervention of God. Without God making His will to be made known, everything would be as it was: voided of meaning and purpose; lacking in connection and productivity and without a name. There would be a “something” but it would be “nothing.” How are we able to see this in Genesis 2? God takes the available resource that is just existing and makes out of it “man.” Produces a place for the man to dwell until the work of creation is completed and man’s horizons to care and steward the garden would be increased to include the whole of it. The story of empowering Adam’s intellect to begin naming the animals, and probably the rest of creation as well, led to Adam grasping that he was different from all other creations. Adam was unique and thus alone. Yes, he was with God and of God’s spirit because it had been breathed into him and “calling him out” of nothingness into something. That something was a man called Adam. This led to a longing and wondering for another like himself to be more like all other living creatures. His vision was impaired because he could not see the fullness of who he was. Adam, and God, knew that it was not good to be alone. So, God, in His righteous compassion met the need and “brought out” of Adam another being. Adam called her Eve. Together they would have a new life. It was a life with order and structure, meaning and purpose, as well as connection and community. They were together as one in life. They were together as one until “death” made itself known. No, not death in the flesh as would be the fate of everyone; but in spirit as sin would have it become. In order for there to be a true appreciation of life, one has to experience the lack of it and then have it restored, reborn, renewed. And it happened… but that is a story for another day.

Until then, let the lesson of today remind us that only by the grace and love of God can we exist and bear His name. Anything that we do by our own will, volition and ability is time bound: from dust it came and to dust it will return.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.