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.