The Message

Use all these words in whatever you write today: fiction, essay, poem, journal, blog.

force  garden  stocking  bizarre  simplistic

Smash365: Wordplay

There is an allure in writing, a rhythm in words, an ancient urge to tell my story. The allure is tinged with selfishness, a grasp at immortality, a hunger to live on in the retelling.

As I picture Woman in the garden, speaking to the serpent, I am drawn away from the simplistic nature of our culture blaming her for the fall, for all that is wrong in the world. Where is Adam?
Is he beside her? Is he apart from her? Close enough to hear? Is Eden so vast that he is too far away to sense what is happening?

Or, is Adam complacent?

I am not a Hebrew scholar. I am a child exploring stories. My time spent in study is short. I only just recently opened the pages, began reading for myself. Yet, the doctrine of my childhood faith and my life experiences collide in the seemingly bizarre question, "Where is Adam?"

I ask this question within the framework of my life, as a woman walking beside a man for the past 26 years, a wife partner to this man for the past 2.3 decades, the mother of his children, a co-collaborator in painting the fresh canvass of an empty nest.

As simplistic as this may sound, he knows. My partner on this earth, my husband, senses it when I am up to something.
When I am being tempted, he knows.

So, where is Adam?

As I read the Bible, I am stocking up on questions for my Creator. As silly – or even disrespectful – as that sounds, I am curious.
I want to understand.

And, I am grateful.

I am grateful for the man walking beside me every day and the grace of my Creator in every breath. I am most grateful that neither seeks to force me into actions or thoughts or words.

I am given the freedom to journey and discover and question.

Today, as I open the pages, The Message breaks away from the 'thou shalt not' texts of my childhood and becomes an inviting collection of stories and songs, prayers and conversations, sermons and visions.

There is an allure in the writing, a rhythm in the words, an ancient urge within me to read and discover The Story.

Rw
 


The Message is a contemporary rendering of the Bible from the original languages, crafted ... in everyday language.
The Story is all about ... God’s great love affair with humanity. 
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