God's Story - Creation

I seemed to have been challenged recently to really get to know God's story and how to communicate it.  A book that I've been reading, "Spiritual Parenting" introduced me to the idea of telling God's story to our children; with the Elementary kids we have been looking at the Old Testament and how God is working to restore us back to Him; and at the Family Ministry Conference that I attended in February they reiterated the importance of parents telling God's story to their kids as they would any bedtime story. 

I didn't grow up in a Christian home and so I didn't really have modeled for me ways of building Christ into my family.  I have done things by hit and miss and by the grace of God's direction.  When our kids were very young, much of their spiritual development occurred at church.  Around the time all 3 of my kids were in elementary school, God was laying on both mine and my husband's heart to take a more active role in their spiritual development.  While we did devotions and even memory verse work, it never occurred to me to tell them the story of the whole Bible - God's love story to us and His plan to rescue and redeem us.  It is not only about Jesus it is also about us.  The story begins a long time ago...

CREATION - God created the world.  It was beautiful and perfect.  He created man and woman and placed them in a garden that not only provided for their every need, but also provided companionship with one another and most wonderfully with God - a perfect unhindered relationship with one another and an intimate, know-your-voice-and-footsteps level relationship with God.

It is almost beyond our ability to comprehend this, because our relationships are always complicated with some degree of baggage - stuff that we want to keep hidden or simply unrealistic pictures of what relationships should be like from watching others or the media.

This is the ideal picture that the Bible begins with... it is also the picture that we are trying to get back to.  The rest of the story will look at how this first human experience with one another and with God was broken and what God has done to restore these original, unhindered, intimate relationships both in this life and for all eternity.

For today simply allow your mind to meditate on this picture.  Read Genesis 2:8-25.  It is easiest to share a story that you personally connect with so, think about what it would have been like to live in the garden without any secrets, regrets, or guilt - just perfect relationships with others and a perfect relationship with God.  Let your mind's eye see God's creation...