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Dear
Saints:
I
was reading in Genesis recently, and my attention was drawn to the
familiar passage of God’s creation of humankind. This is how Genesis 1:26-28
reads in the English Standard Version:
26 Then
God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
27 So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him; male and female he created them.
28 And
God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every
living thing that moves on the earth."
One
phrase jumped out at me, as is so often the case when I’m
reading scripture. I may have read a particular passage a hundred
times and, then, all of a sudden I notice something I have never
noticed before. What caught my eye on this occasion were the words,
“And God blessed them.”
Certainly,
there are more than enough commands in the Bible given by God for us
to obey. But here we read that God “blessed”—not
commanded—the newly created human race to procreate and have
dominion over the earth. It came to me that if there are numerous
times when God commands us to do, or not do, something, there are
just as many times when he blesses us with something – in this
case with life, family, and the stewardship of his good creation.
And
I thought: Like God, we do a lot of commanding too. Parents, for
instance, make rules and enforce them in the raising of children;
employers regulate the workplace with policies and procedures;
governments develop laws for the ordering of society.
But
God also did a lot of blessing. In what ways do we bless?
I
wonder how different our relationships might be if we blessed others
with the same intentionality as we make and implement commands,
rules, policies, and laws. I wonder how it would affect the church. I
wonder how it would affect our church.
Genesis
reminds us that “God blessed”—and so we can too! This
month, be a blessing to someone.
May
the Lord bless you, keep you, and look upon you with favor,
Pastor
Larry |
