A day of rest…doesn’t that sound good? God knew how essential to man’s well being that a day of rest would be. Therefore He provided for it when He created the seventh day. He had been at work all week creating the world and all that was in it, but on the seventh day He rested.
God made this day of rest a holy day, a day set apart from the other six. If God needed to rest, how much more we feeble human beings need to do the same. The hectic world we live in today could easily push us over the edge if we do not schedule that one day out of the week to set apart all other activities and give our bodies, minds, and souls a day of peace and refreshment. Do yourself a favor…follow God’s leading and take a day of rest. You earned it. You need it. Go for it!
God has many ways of displaying His love for man. After He created the most beautiful garden on earth, He placed His first human being there to enjoy it all. Adam could walk among the trees that were pleasing to look at, and also produced very tasty food to eat. He could sit on a river bank and watch the water flow so gracefully through the garden...water that was also fun to play in. What a lush surrounding God had created for Adam to bask in!
What delight God must have had in seeing the pleasure that Adam took in the beauty of the garden. Then, one by one, God brought all of the animals and birds that He had created in a parade before Adam. Wanting to bring His new companion into partnership with Him, He gave Adam the honor of naming each living creature. I wonder if God and Adam laughed together as Adam would look at the different sizes and shapes of the animals, amazed at God’s creativity, and then he would call it something like "rhinoceros"
or "hippopotamus"
or "kangaroo". It did not matter what Adam named it, God gave him the final say.
God also gave man the gift of freedom. Adam was free to choose whether he would love God and fellowship with Him...or live selfishly to himself. God planted a tree in the middle of all the other trees in the garden, calling it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam he could eat freely of all the trees in the garden except that one. If Adam ate fruit from that marked tree, he would be disobeying his Creator. That would mean that his fellowship with God would be broken...death would occur. This gave Adam the freedom to choose love rather than the command to love. Love is not genuine if it is demanded of someone.
On top of all of these expressions of God’s love to man, God also recognized Adam’s need to have a companion in fleshly form. Out of Adam’s own body the Creator formed Eve. God blessed their union and made them one. They were free to enjoy each other as they frolicked in the garden of paradise that God had provided for them. Talk about having your cake and eating it too…besides each other, they also had fellowship with the Creator Himself!
What a utopia…what more could they ask for? What God had created was good...it was pure...and it was holy. Life was perfect. Too bad the story does not end there, but if it had perhaps we would not be here. We will learn more about our roots as we travel through Genesis. We have much to discover about our ancestors, as well as ourselves.Are you ready? Take up your Bible and let’s go!
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