The First Picture of Grace

I find the love of God to be so perplexing and amazing all at the same time...

I fight to be clean enough to gain it...

Then, I ultimately shun it through my humanity...

I draw close...I run away...

But the closer I grow to Him...I realize the depth...cliche as it may sound....the depth of this God love...

Reading in Genesis this morning, I read the story of the forbidden fruit. God clearly told Adam and Eve "Eat of the fruit and you will surely die."

Surely die.

Not maybe.

Not possibly.

Surely.

Then we see the story play out as Eve is so drawn by what she cannot have that she partakes of the fruit...inviting Adam to indulge with her. They partake...become aware of their nakedness and humanity...and thus the first story of humanity running from God begins.

Yet...God.

This "Surely you will die" God...paints the very first picture of grace.

I can't believe I never caught this before...check it out.

So God has warned Adam and Eve that should they eat the fruit they will die. Yet he comes to them...calls out to them in the garden...and talks to them...calls them out of their hiding place.

This all powerful Creator of humanity...able to create another obedient Adam and and Eve and demolish the first set...talks to them.

He relates to them.

He corrects them.

God allows them to have scars and further pain that will remind them to not eat of the forbidden again...

YET...they DO NOT DIE.

Grace. Unmerited love and favor.

Grace.

God has been painting His love and grace since the beginning of the world. Did Adam and Eve eventually die? Sure. But He extended grace to those wayward children and loved them through the pain  they created for Him.

Rather than exercising His word to kill these wayward children...God first relates to them...explains to them...corrects them...THEN continues to love them...

Blows my mind.

Excites my soul. 

Spurns me to grasp it further, spread it farther, engage it deeper. 

God. LOVES. Me. 

Enough to put up with sin since the garden so He could meet me...caress my soul...engage me...and walk with me...

I plan to get the word out today of this God love...not in the form of tracts and free Bibles...but in lunches with growing child disciples...in smiles at the grocery store...in practiced presence with Him...

I pray I can engage someone to feel this God love...

With Joy and light to the earth...

Grace n Peace,

A ~