Genesis 1:26-28 ESV
Genesis 2:18-23 ESV
Isaiah 46:9-10 NKJV
I John 4:9 NLT
Matthew 1:23 ESV
Matthew 4:19 ESV
Romans 11:33-36 ESV
A Story of Love Series
As we continue to explore the wonder of God’s love in our world, we look at the beginning of love.
In the beginning, God created love…
We read of an outpouring of God’s love in Genesis 1:26-28, “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.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 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.”
It doesn’t matter how many times I read this…it’s always a wonder. It’s like the most beautiful piece of literature ever written.
I’ll never stop being amazed that man was created in the image of God. In the image of God, male and female they were created.
In addition to that, we are given a view of how God provided for the earth and for man and woman.
God created the seas and they were filled with fish. God created the sky and filled it wit birds and flying creatures. And on the earth, God created livestock and all creeping creatures. Everything that was needed was created.
In chapter one of Genesis we get the overview…the poetic version.
Then in Genesis Chapter two we get details.
Genesis 2:18-23 we learn, “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
In Genesis two we see God express love in its best form. God created man and formed a plan for man. God created the animals and creatures and He let man name them. God included man IN creation. God realized man should not be alone, so God created a help-mate. Out of love, God created a perfect pair.
The help-mate was formed from man and for man. Out of love, God created. More than that, God created and remains active in creation, because of love.
We read in Isaiah 46:9-10, “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times thingsthat are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,”
God was intricately involved in creation and even still God is involved in every detail. Because this God of ours is a God like no other, the beginning and the end of everything is known my God.
The Prophet Isaiah is not saying that God is a puppet master, but rather that God is all knowing and all powerful. God can see man makes choices, and knows the result.
God is omnipotent. All Powerful.
God is Omnipresent. Present everywhere in time and space.
God is Omniscient. All knowing.
Those concepts are difficult for the human mind to conceive, but by faith we begin to understand the power and capability of God.
Through God’s love we see power, presence, and knowledge walking with creation. God didn’t (doesn’t) leave us on our own to fend for ourselves. This all powerful all knowing God desires communication with creation. Because God is also omnibenevolent possessing unlimited love and goodness, God walks with us.
Indeed, God sent His son literally to walk with us and suffer for us so we could understand His love. John wrote in 1 John 4:9, “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.”
At the appointed time, after God spoke to prophet after prophet after prophet, He completed everything that was promised by sending His Son. But God didn’t do what we would have expected. Jesus didn’t descent from the clouds in an all-powerful form. Jesus came as a helpless babe, born in a common stable. God came as one of us. Matthew 1:23 tells us, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”. Immanuel…God with us. A baby who grew up among us. Jesus, a boy who learned how to be a carpenter from his earthly father, Joseph. Jesus, the man who walked among us, who healed and redeemed those who had been cast off. Jesus even loved and accepted women and treated them with decency and respect. Jesus loved the children and spent time with them. In the 1st Century children and women were considered to be less valuable than cattle. But Jesus shocked them all. He LOVED them. He defended them. He honored them.
In addition to that, he called 12 rouge rough men to be His disciples. They were fishermen and outcasts. They had all flunked out of Rabbinical school. They didn’t “make the grade” in Jewish school so they got sent home to learn the trade of their fathers. They were told they weren’t good enough or smart enough to study under a real Jewish Rabbi.
Then one day, a man named Jesus showed up and started teaching. He spoke words they’d never heard. Plus, he healed the blind and the lame. Crowds gathered to hear him. Word spread that a Rabbi named Jesus was down by the river teaching and healing. And they came…
That same Rabbi tapped Peter and Andrew and the other ten on the shoulder and said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
Rabbi Jesus redeemed the outcasts. He redeemed women. He redeemed children. All because of Jesus’ great love. God/Jesus had heard their cries and He came to earth to redeem them.
In Romans 11:33-36, the Apostle Paul (who was the only Apostle who was a highly educated Rabbi) wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.”
From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things done in love. From Creation came Adam and Eve because of God’s love to the Prophets who foretold through God’s love, to Jesus, the very Son of God who IS love.
For you. All of it was done for you.
God loves you.
God chooses you.
God redeems you so that you will spend eternity surrounded IN God’s love.
For you.
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Receive God’s Love.
Open your hands and receive God’s love.
In God, Deborah
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