As part of Lamplighters Bible Study, I will be sharing my own stories. Prompted by the weekly Scripture from Genesis and led by the Holy Spirit, I will share as we go and invite you to do the same. Each week after doing the inductive portion of the study– the lessons are available online– I’ll set my timer for 20 minutes and write the story on my heart.
From Genesis: Tell Me the Story
Lesson 2 (Genesis 2:4-25)
I sat criss-cross-applesauce on the floor in the sanctuary trying to get a picture of my little pig. I forgot it was chapel morning—the kindergarten schedule isn’t fully downloaded to my brain this early in the year. Littlest begged me to stay.
Sigh . . . so much work to do.
Clearly, the Lord had a lesson to teach me. How blessed am I when He chooses to use pre-school chapel to speak. Language even I can understand. And isn’t it just like God to arrange for me to attend Littlest’s chapel day when the story is Genesis Chapter 2—the exact chapter and verses of this week’s Lamplighters lesson.
Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.
The Lord God planted a garden—Eden. He filled it with flora and fauna and all kinds of trees that were pleasing to the eye and bursting with food to nourish. Streams came up out of the earth to water the surface of the ground and a river large enough to water all of Eden flowed plentiful before it took the form of four distinct headwaters spreading out from the perfect garden. The Gardener planned and planted the perfect sanctuary, saving His golden crown of creation for last, breathing life from dust into a man made in His own image to tend and care for it all. From the man He made a helper.
Knowing what happens next to Adam and Eve makes it hard to rest and be still, imagining this place of perfect provision. The river is neither silent nor subdued. The living water runs through Eden nurturing with pure and holy properties before flowing out from the sanctuary carrying God’s provision to the rest of the world.
I see the river clearly. Flowing in the outstretched hands of the child dressed as a pig whose voice sings to her Father
Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living
Sanctuary for you.
Love,
Lovely, really lovely.