In the Beginning there was..............A New Challenge

So, one of the churches that I have been attending has been going through “The Story” by Frazee over the last month. The premise of The Story is to look at the entire bible, in more or less of a story format, and exam God’s continual pursuit of us. Many members of our church and my small group were super excited about the actual study; however, for me it is a new challenge. I LOVE details, going deep into words, phrases and contexts, and looking at the entire picture; thus, this overview format of multiple chapters at a time is hard for me. I’m not sure where all these little why questions that I have fit into the really big picture of God’s love and pursuit of His people. However, it is really challenging me to take a step back, to only look at the big picture, let the details fuzz away and try to learn in a new way.

The Creation
In the beginning, God created a new challenge- almost to himself- and he created the world. This creation is an overflow of God’s glory and it is ALL His house. As it says in Genesis when God created man He came down to earth and created man with his own hands AND He created us in HIS own image. How groovy. God created US, imperfect humans, to resemble HIS image! In addition, God did not create us to be puppets or to forcefully worship Him. No, no, no, God desired for His relationship with His creation to be genuine and their choice. In order for His creation to have a choice on what to follow and what to believe, God needed to give them a choice. By giving Adam & Eve rules and introducing the “forbidden fruit” God was allowing Adam and Eve to exercise their free will. As soon as Adam & Eve made the choice to eat the fruit they became afraid and went to hide from God. Each party blamed someone else when they talked to God about the situation. Even though God was upset, angry and hurt that those He created had chosen to listen to another above His voice, He still continued to love Adam & Eve. God helped Adam & Eve to make clothes so that they no longer felt naked- even though that did not matter to God. Of course there was a consequence for their actions, Adam & Eve were no longer allowed to live in the garden, but God did not push them away. On the contrary God continued to talk with Adam &Eve, and their children, and carry in their relationship as if the original disobedience had never occurred. Such beauty. Throughout the story of Adam & Eve and Cain & Able, God always asked His people to talk with Him. God always gave them the chance to be honest but His people chose to lie and let their sin rule over them. Then, after each time His people lied to Him in these beginning stories, God continued to talk with His people and still desired to be in communion with Him; how beautiful!