The hibiscus is an awesome example of God’s creativity.
We are using a new curriculum in our middle school Sunday school class that uses video and drawing and skits and covers the entire Bible in 32 weeks. While I like the fast paced, keep the kids interested approach, it obviously leaves a lot of gaps. The videos are only like three minutes or so.
My hubby and I decided we would show the video and do the accompanying activities one week and fill in some of the blanks the next, so there wouldn’t be as many gaps. I mean, the first one covered from Creation to the Flood. That’s a lot of ground to cover in forty-five minutes.
As I read through the first couple of chapters of Genesis again, Genesis 2:9, really grabbed me. I just love the fact that the Bible is a living, breathing work of art. Something different speaks to me every time I read it, depending on the season of my life or what I’m searching for.
Genesis 2:9, says, “The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground-trees that were beautiful and produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” NLT
What kind of trees did God make? Beautiful ones. Why? Because, God is clearly a creative God who loves beauty and wants to share it with his creation, us. The text doesn’t say, He created plain boring trees. It says they were beautiful. God created beauty for our enjoyment as well as His own.
Secondly, what kind of fruit did He create? Was it sour or bland? Nope. God created delicious fruit. The scripture doesn’t say He simply created food for our nourishment. It says He created delicious fruit.
What does this say about the nature of God? He cares about beauty and creativity in our lives. He cares about our enjoyment. It doesn’t say He created a certain amount of grams of this or that. It says He created something delicious for our enjoyment.
Verse 15 tells us that there was only one tree in the entire garden they weren’t supposed to eat from, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Chapter three tells us about the nature of human beings. We tend to want the few things or in this case, the one thing that is forbidden to us. There was plenty of delicious fruit to eat, but they chose the forbidden and that is a pretty true picture of our nature.
But, this is why the Bible is so important. It’s story after story of our nature clashing with God’s and of Him always loving us and forgiving us for following our own ways and instead of His. Eventually, He sent His son to redeem us for good.
But, today, let’s start focusing on the beautiful and the delicious that we can have. There’s so much that God has given us to freely enjoy with His blessing. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can truly learn that walking within boundaries can be an incredibly freeing experience.
What do you think. Feel free to comment.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂