Cultivate the enviornment.

In the beginning God created man and woman in His image then placed them in the garden. Not in the wild, but in a garden a cultivated place; a place where order was established from the beginning.

Why is it when we attempt something creative and new in the name of Jesus, people who regard themselves as Jesus fans are put off or threatened?

When did we get so familiar with the wild around us that forgot the possibility of what could be? If we as individuals resemble our Creator, could our creativity be one of those things?

My wife Andrea and her brothers look very much like their mother and father, and the brothers and sister favor each other as well. Why is it that as members of God’s family, we experience such a hard time seeing in each other a resemblance to Jesus? Simply talking about being related seems shallow.

After 10 years of marriage, Andrea and I are starting to look like each other. I think it has to do with behaving in a similar manor, picking up on the same likes and dislikes, and finding humor together. I believe that if we are given a long life here together, we will grow more and more alike as time passes.

The world and all things in it resulted from someone’s thinking, and I believe that we’ve not yet completed our part of the assignment. I feel that if we who follow Jesus would appreciate creativity as much as we do familiarity, we may grow a bit, coming closer to the heaven on earth we dream about.

Wisdom of Solomon

Just this morning I was I woke up to a report on gay marriage. I started thinking about what I believe on this divisive subject. I feel that community and relationships are foundational to my understanding of God. For me the Trinity: Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit is the ultimate form of community. Jesus uses this 'one' language when describing His relationship to the Father as does the apostle Paul when he talks about the relationship between a husband and wife. A complete new entity is formed by these unions and it seems that they are by design not to be divided.

In the old testament, there was a king Solomon who the Bible says was the wisest man that ever lived or will live. (Sorry Dr Hawkings) In the text is a story of two woman fighting over a child. Both mothers claimed it was theirs. To solve the conflict Solomon declared that the baby be cut in two. Once hearing his verdict the birth mother disavowed any claim to the baby. Solomon understood that because of this idea of oneness, who the mother was.

Is it possible that this baby gives the understanding to why marriage was designed to produce one flesh and can not be duplicated by same sex couples? Simply accepting this does not produce any sort of solution. If nothing else it divides us even further from each other and gives more force into the argument. If only Solomon was here now to help us diffuse the situation and bring order to this chaos.

In this world with a fallen humanity, and regarding our relationships with our same sex brothers and sisters, what represents the baby and how can it be spared?