Missed you all!

I've given up worrying about lapses in my daily reading; I've come to consider them as blessings from God. They always when come when God has visited an abundance of new challenges for me to manage and time becomes scarce; I get them under control and return to the Bible to recharge and fortify for the next set of opportunities to grow. This last set, though, was a real doozy-new responsibilities at TLC, layoffs and paycuts at work, temptations of the mind, body, and soul in my personal life.

But while my reading may lapse, my listening for Christ never ceases as I go through my day. And He has turned me back to my readings, guiding me away from the intellectual involvement of Paul and back to Genesis.

I have always bought into the notion that the Bible is a living document, that your interpretations will change over your life. But this is the first time I personally have returned to a Bible reading after experiencing my own growth as a Christian. And where I used to read the story of Creation from the point of view of a scientist, I now read from the point of view of a Christian. It is simply the clearest, most beautiful expression of God's work imaginable. In God's love, while He filled all that was formless and empty, He allowed a little of it to be filled by me. And I now don't just know my place as He has laid it out for me, but I feel my spot in His Creation as naturally as the spaces held by the Tigris or Euphrates. This bond is too strong to be disturbed by whatever temptations or tribulations may be cast my way.

In some respects, as I respond to the temptations and tribulations of the day with as much love or patience or forgiveness as I can summon, I find that God has allowed me to re-create at least a tiny windowsill Garden of Eden of my own. I enjoy it and reflect upon what life would be like with only love and no pettiness, no iniquity, no shame.