Humanity...

Week 3 of course work. our text is still Genesis 1-11. we were answer: "how does Genesis 1-11 shape your conception of humanity and how does that conception relate to your culture's dominant construal of human nature?"

easy-peasy. HA!

anyway, these are my thoughts for the week.

blessings to you!!

Humanity is the climax of creation. What joy that we should be so desired and cherished! God called us into being. God did not suffer a slip of the hand when the world was new…we are not an “oops!” God made us in God’s image and bestowed the care and keeping of all God has created upon us.

This care and keeping is not permission to plunder the bounty of the world or to use one another for our own purposes. God’s gift is a passing of privilege and responsibility. We are made in the likeness of God, with the same goodness as God, and God sets us free upon creation with a blessing and a charge: we are to care for creation as God does.

The text tells us that God was incredibly intentional about the creation of the world. Gen 1:1-2:3 God took time and considered what was to be. Creation was not a whim; rather, it was a process. God enjoyed what God had made each day and declared it “good”. We are to see the value that God sees and to treat creation as such. We are to use resources wisely to be good stewards. We are to treat each other as God treats us…with care, with compassion, with deep love giving to one another the best gifts we have to offer.

As humans, we are not perfect. God gives clear directions, and we choose to ignore them or to respond to the smallest amount of the directive possible (My 9-yr old is a master of this latter function. I call him my “line-toer”. Humanity is brilliant at this sort of disobedience as well!) God has called us into being and granted us free will. We are given guidance, suggestions, and commandments by God, yet we fail to see or choose to ignore them.

I consider myself immersed in two cultures. One is my “real-life” community, which is comprised of a community church, two elementary schools, family members, long-time friends, and a strike fighter squadron in the Navy. The second is my “on-line” community, which is filled with people daily involved in the handmade craft community either as businesspersons (crafters) or as consumers. It is interesting to me that my real-life community is diligent about the care and keeping of humans. We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely and imprisoned, and tend the sick. My on-line community is committed to the stewardship of the rest of creation. We sparingly use resources, consider carefully the materials used for our craft, conscientiously research shipping methods to reduce our “carbon-footprints”, and review these policies of other crafters/artisans before we make a purchase. I would rejoice if my two communities could combine our efforts!

God made us in God’s image, but God did not make us God. We are given the choice to follow God’s directions, and often we choose not to. This freedom (and ultimate failure) is also a gift. God loves us no less because we choose not to obey. Our failure gives us the opportunity to experience God’s grace. God’s grace gives us yet another chance at obedience. Another chance gives us the prospect of following God’s will for us and for all of creation, to be a blessing, and to fulfill God’s charge.

Pentateuch

Pentateuch. sounds like something you might catch from being improperly dressed, no? but actually it is the name for the first five books of the Bible.

i enrolled and began coursework at Luther Seminary. and now, i am knee-deep in the Old Testament. i debated for a bit but ultimately decided that some of you just may want to hear what i have to say on the subject...for all sorts of reasons (you, dear readers, are a varied lot!).

the text for week 2 (this week...the first week was "hello, my name is so-and-so...this is where i live and who i am, etc...but you already know that) is Genesis 1-11. the question for contemplation is "how is the Bible true?". this, my friends, is what i've come up with thus far:

Genesis is a faith confession. As such, it seeks to tell us the way God intends our world to be. God is. God created every thing, and we are the paramount event in all of Creation. God saw what God had made and declared it good. We fall, falter, fail and God recreates. God makes all things new.

The truth in these chapters for me is that God is a giver of blessings and a keeper of promises. “God blessed them…” Gen 1:28. When we miss the mark, when we disappoint God, God picks us up, sets us again on the path, and blesses us so that we may try again. “God blessed Noah…” Gen 9:1. Time after time in the text, humanity shows its frailty. We turn from the instructions we are given. We shame ourselves and seek to hide from God and from one another. We give in to anger. We disclaim responsibility for our actions. Time after time, God redirects our actions, forgives our sins, and blesses us.

This truth is a source of great comfort to me. I know there is nothing that can keep me from God. God has chosen me for good and has saved me from sin. All that God requires of me is faith and trust.

This is not a revelation in my life. I was blessed to be born into a family of faithful, trust-filled people. The “ah-ha!” for me is that each time I revisit God’s promises and blessings, I have a much longer list of sins and shame and things-I-wish-I-had-done-differently, yet each time, the message is the same. “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good…” Gen 1:31. No matter how far I fall from rightness, God still claims me. God still calls me “very good” if I am able to be redirected in faith and to trust in the path God places before me.

Genesis is also a book of beginnings. The world is made. Humanity is born. Faith is created. Sin is forced into being. God begins his covenant(s) with us. It is a launching pad to the relationship that God is continually forming with us from the Beginning to the End. “See, I am making all things new….” Rev 21:5. Thanks be to God.

the super big project

when anxiety or worry takes over, i find myself drawn to fiber. i like to hold it, squish it, spin it, finish it, knit it, smell it (does that make me weird??)

it is fairly obvious to anyone who knows me well that there are some major things going on in my little world. the mounds of freshly carded fiber (thanks Erin, Ducky, and Mande!) are piling up. the spinning wheel is whirring more often than not. the skeins of gorgeous yarns for doll hair are stacking up in the studio.

several months ago, i spun a yarn that i couldn't part with. something about it made me pause. so, i began knitting. a triangle. then, i found another yarn. and another yarn. and another yarn. and i knit them up, too. into triangles. lots of oddly shaped, variously sized triangles.

a week ago, i finally figured out what to do with them all. i'm going to continue to knit them until some large life things are settled out...and then i'll need a professional finisher. got any suggestions?




all the yarns in this particular project are spun by batts from Erin of WoolyHands on Etsy. (well, except for one...it was spun by Erin...but i need to remember to ask if it was her batt!)