"Now a river flowed out of Eden and there divided into four parts..."

Gushing, spreading, surrounding

water sustaining life

going from the place of God's presence 
to the outliers.

I don't want to reduce Genesis 2 to just an ancient tale of a garden and a river, merely a symbolic account. However,  the symbolism of God's Spirit flowing from the center of God's fellowship with man is unmistakeable. The river's source was within the garden, where God walked with man. The river's life giving potential flowed from its source then gushed and spread in all directions. Jesus made it clear that the one who believes in Him has this hope: abundant life in companionship and oneness with the Lord.  John 7:38-39, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

God's Spirit

gushes from
the innermost being of a believer in Jesus Christ
and reaches the outliers

with His love.

We have nothing else to really offer 

but this:

His love

overflowing from His presence
in us.
multiplying and spreading

flowing...

never stagnate;

this is the river of life.

A river flows...it moves or it is not a river. God's Spirit moves too. If your spiritual life is stagnate, perhaps you are living more separately from Him than you thought. Perhaps you are living like an outlier even though you've been invited into His presence. 

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’" Acts 17:24-28

About those trees...

My sweet grandmother Dorthea, as many of her spiritually minded peers, always loved the hymn "In the Garden". If you're a fan of country music or a baptist, you may be familiar with this hymn too:
"I come to the garden, alone
while the dew is still on the roses
and the voice I hear
falling on my ear
the Son of God discloses
and He walks with me
and He talks with me
and He tells me...
I am His own.
And the joy we share
as I tarry there
none other
has ever
known."

     I never loved it except to hear my Nanny sing it, with joy and confidence and more than a little off key.
I think of Adam when I hear this hymn, walking in the garden with God.
I think of Adam coming upon these two trees. Both good for food, beautiful to look at, and placed intentionally in Adam's world by God.
Two trees- one with an invitation and one with a prohibition.
And of course, on behalf of Adam and Eve and the entire human race I ask, "Why God? Why did you put that tree there?"
How could a temptation to make a wrong choice be a good thing?
     The Hebrew for "good" can mean: to serve a purpose...to perform a function well...to be fitting for the ultimate goal. What was that goal? It was to be a reflection of God's being and character and a partner in managing the created world (Gen. 1:26). But Adam was finite, limited. Adam was only human and so, it would take him forever to come into a full life experience of His purpose. It would take Him a forever of walking and talking with God to partner with Him in his position as "Image bearer of God"... "Assistant manager of the world". Since Adam would need forever, God planted the tree of life. A tree that would sustain Adam...would tend to the workings of his body with every sumptuous bite.
The other tree...the one we consider the source of the curse, would tend to the workings of his soul with every closed lip refusal to bite.
The option to trust and obey was an invitation to live and to love.
But Adam was new to life. He was new to God. He knew nothing of death. He knew nothing of evil.
God did.
God knew Satan.
God already knew loss and separation. God had already been betrayed by one of His own, Lucifer.
God knew the misery of being intimately acquainted with evil.
This knowledge, this personal experience of evil was something from which He wanted to protect Adam. But true intimacy must come from a choice to know and be known. It must come from a decision to trust. So God said "no" to the tree of knowing good and evil.
He didn't appear to give much of an explanation.
How many of us who have been parents understand that a two year-old wouldn't understand a long explanation of our "no". We also cannot place our two year-old in a position where we never have to say "no". How would they learn to trust us? How would they learn anything at all without choices? How would they learn to love?
God didn't begin his relationship with Adam with a bunch of rules...just one.
One "no" in their own little world of "yes"...
Just one opportunity to trust,
one opportunity to choose,
and an invitation to live...
to love
and to be loved.

God plants a garden...Gen. 2:5-8

I have a little garden in a small corner of our yard. There, surrounded by a little fence, grow little rows of cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, cauliflower (not sure why), and scallions. All around my little vegetables are big weeds. The things I want to eat I had to plant and care for; but the things I'd rather not eat came without any effort at all.
Ask any gardener...gardens take work. The first garden was no different. God sectioned off an area and planted a garden, food for the man he was ready to create.

God's garden would take effort. It would take intention. There were already things growing...wild things that grew at God's bidding but now He was making something to sustain the body and soul of a man. And the man would have to take part in the cultivating process. God's garden was distinct from the rest of creation as a place of partnership between Creator and created. God's garden was a place designed for relationship.
Then,
the "LORD GOD" made man.
 Moses, the author of Genesis, refers to God for the first time in Genesis 2:5 as a personal God, the Supreme One who makes Himself known to His own....
the God who comes close to His people.
God scooped up the dirt and organized cells into the body of a man.
From the substance of the earth, the common material for all living beings, God fashioned Adam.
Then from the breath of God,
 came the breath of man.
And God set Adam in His paradise.

God's Rest - Part 2

Light-brite night
in bursts of
white
you stutter
as you host;
on leaf
on blade
throngs spark and fade
and flit from rail
to post.

At Home- Last night in our back field fire-flies danced a thousand dances.

On Vacation- Ancient, fleshy sandstone slumps down into vibrating emerald waters like gigantic legless elephant feet. Water meets rock in tragic, barren beauty.

For Christmas- The boys sang, as if the angels cracked the clouds and our ears tapped into their song...and my heart squeezed out the tears of stabbing joy.

In Love- And now I know that human arms can feel like God Himself is holding you.

As a Mom- The best smell on earth: my nose in the feathery fuzz of my babies' heads.

Any day, Any time, Anywhere- chocolate

These are moments when God has wooed me in His wordless way-
"look
listen
feel
smell
taste...
I am."

These are moments of God, not moving mountains for me
but in the everydayness of every day, still communicating His power, His beauty, His love...
Him.
He shows not what He can do for me, but who He is.
The seventh day of creation: Man's second day.
Adam and Eve enjoyed all that God had created as man and woman, in the beginning of the discovery of God...they went about seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting
God.
And God let Himself be known.

Genesis 2:1-3

Leaves hang and shimmy in shades of
green
greener
greenest
above my head.
Gus stretches, yawns and I just lie there...
doing nothing?
wasting time?
No, we are definitely doing something.
We are resting!
We are enjoying!
There will be more work to do but for now,
Gus and I know when to say "When"!

The idea of rest in Genesis 2 does not imply that God needed an escape from work, only that when the work was done, He knew it. 

He knew when to say "when"!
God at rest does not imply He needed to regain His strength either. God rested, or ceased His work, because He saw the value of enjoying it. He knew that humans would soon begin the wrecking of Paradise, but on the seventh day...His work was done.
So, He rested.
He enjoyed.
By stopping to take in what He had completed, God honored the moment...He "blessed" it. Creation was something to celebrate, so God memorialized it on the seventh day.
Cultures around the world have very different takes on the idea of rest. Some cultures seem to rest most of the time while others barely stop for breath. No matter where a person may fall on the continuum of work and rest,
universally,
humanity seeks enjoyment...
in work or at play or through some form of escape.
A space inside of us begs to be filled with joy, endlessly driving of us through cycles of pain and pleasure.
But there is futility in our own work and in our own enjoyment,
the sense of "my work is never done"
or
"there's never enough fun"...
God is our example.
His work and His pleasure is never futile,
never nothing
never a waste of time...

Can you stop long enough to honor His work in you? If enjoying yourself isn't working for you, begin enjoying Him.

Philippians 1:6

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

On the eve of the greatest unraveling in history, God rested. 
Thousands of years later, He still works to restore His plan for the world...
starting with you.
And some day, that too will be complete.
Now that is something to celebrate!

My brain is so tired. I have studied, for now, all that I can to understand God's creative work. How mind-blowing! My heart has been thrilled in worship through the time spent reading as many sources of scientific research as I can manage. Someday, I may return...it is endless. The sources were of great variety. The theories of science do not cause me to dismay but to tear up with awe. Yes, I studied some Darwin and disciples. Yes, I read an "evolutionist/creationist", and of course my past if full of pure creationism. I have also tried to be true to the Hebrew meanings behind words like: "created", "let there be", "made" etc.
I am convinced that I could spend more than the rest of my life in this study and still end up affirmed and confirmed that:
God is
and God is great.
My writing cannot reveal all that has transpired in my heart and mind and more than ever before, I have a deep sense of both the limits and vastness of the universe and humanity. 
How did the world begin? With God communicating Himself through what He made. We are driven, in a very small but similar way to communicate ourselves through creativity...a making of something new. I offer this paraphrase of Gen.1, not as an authority but as a meager meditation of the new things He is teaching me. I hope readers will go read and tire their own brains with the in-exhaustive work of God, the Creator
...their Creator.

"In the beginning, God shaped something new...the heavens and the earth.
"And God said, (to his creation) now is the time to produce light"...and His creation obeyed.
God saw that it was the right thing at the right time.

Next, God stretched out the heavens and called to the waters and there was a surface to His creation...a line of distinction between God and His universe.

Then, God spoke again..."Now, waters collect into seas so that this gravel becomes land mass."
And again God could see the goodness of what was happening.
He knew the time had come to release out of the earth, the simplest forms of life. And all the life-giving potential He produced within the earth, "in the beginning", shot up through the soil, and multiplied.

On the fourth day, it was time to attend to the heavens again because the vegetation would need just the right amount of light and darkness. There was a perfect balance necessary for earth to sustain life. God, Himself accomplished this perfect balance.

And so the earth was ready for more complex life and again He made something new, living beings. He filled the sea and the sky with them, creatures to move and breathe. God was very pleased.

Ah, now...the excitement growing, God produced again from the earth something even more amazing...more intricate: "beasts of the earth". As the chains of DNA dictated different kinds, life multiplied again into creatures with unique systems to live on the land. God observed His work, "good...but not finished".
...not finished because even amidst all of that wonder there was still nothing to represent all that God was, all that He is. Even these beautiful beasts lacked the capacity to know Him...relate to Him.
So God the Father conversed with His Son and His Spirit and together, they made man. At last, God could have relationship beyond Himself. He could extend his love, His joy, His understanding to man...thinking, feeling, relating, discerning man. 

Man partnered with God that day to continue organizing creation. All of that life-force would need constant attention to keep it running well. Man is God's chosen manager of His creative work. But man, a masterpiece of God's likeness, would do better in partnership too. Man alone could not multiply. Man alone could not fully reflect the complexity and beauty of God. God began with Adam but He completed His image with Eve. 
The eco-system would now function in perfect harmony.
God took it all in. "This is good beyond good." 

There was now nothing to add, nothing to perfect, so God enjoyed it all. 

Thursday, June 12, 2014
The alarm goes off.
I ,with a great deal of discomfort, wake up...
minutes later I force myself to go wake up my seventeen year-old...who can sleep through three alarms encircling his head.
I go back to bed, asking why morning has to hurt.
Two minutes go by, my husband gets up to give more encouragement to the teenager.
He comes back to bed.
Twenty minutes go by; I hear my son leave...and I again make myself rise and attempt to shine...although I know the shine wont come for at least another two hours, if at all.

Day 5 of creation...exact date unknown
God's voice sounds off.
The earth, with a great deal of energy, wakes up...
Minutes later the waters teem and the skies are filled.
...life rises from the ocean bed 
and shines.

I keep thinking of U2's album title "Rattle and Hum". The earth must have rattled and hummed with the bursting of life. There was an exuberant explosion of what had never been...creature life.
How long exactly did it take for single celled organisms to produce such complex organisms? Well, God had already set the sun and the moon above to "govern" the day. So I take it to mean within a 24 hour day. Impossible to natural science...I know. 
I have to allow that "In the beginning" could have been billions of years ago, but once the sun and moon are set on the fourth day, my flexibility ends. One scientist offered that life was delivered to earth from another being...but could not bring himself to admit it must be God. 
The theories fly like the birds and swarm like the fish...but only one is true. The creation of the world is history...and although none of us was there to witness it, there are not multiple true accounts. There is one.
I am not arrogant enough to think I can say exactly how God did it...
but I believe this
God said...
and it was so.

P.S. A little tidbit from John MacArthur- "Some birds navigate by the stars when migrating. How do they know how to do that? In fact, birds raised from eggs inside a building where they have never seen the sky can orient themselves toward home when shown an artificial sky representing a place they've never been."
Amazing...DNA programs even the birds to know their true home. God has done the same for the human race...but we just refuse to look up.