Originally as I was writing this, I noticed that it was getting rather lengthy. So after a couple discussions with some fellow racers, I am attempting my first ever blog series. I don’t really know how this works or what it is going to look like or how it will end up. But I am still excited…These are some of the thoughts that have been going on in my head. I believe that God has really been using scripture to reveal places where He wants to change and mold me to be more like Him. I pray that you will be open to my thoughts and that the Holy Spirit would use these words to break you, encourage you, and speak truth into your life.
I have been reading the bible a lot lately. I was reading about creation and I was just trying to picture in my head what that would look like.
I don’t even know if I can possibly understand the beauty of it all, especially after seeing some of the amazing places that we have seen so far on the race. The beauty that we have seen probably doesn’t even come anywhere close to the beauty of the Garden of Eden. I am not going to try to describe it because it is beyond my comprehension. In the bible it says that God created some amazing plants that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. There were beautiful flowing rivers. (In my mind there were also a lot of waterfalls.) There were also a bunch of animals.
And God put man in charge of it all.
Then God was looking for a helper for the man. He looked at all the animals that were around and couldn’t find one that was good enough for the man. So then God created the woman from the very flesh of the man, which is something that I can’t even comprehend because it doesn’t work like this nowadays, but it is so amazingly beautiful.
But there is a part of the creation story that has really caught my eye, something that is so incredibly simple and beautiful that it blows me away. It is so beautiful to me because it is the way God created us to be.
Genesis 2:25—The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
When God created us we were naked. Everything was out in the open. He wanted us all to show everything about ourselves. Nothing was covered up or prettied up; we were just completely out there for all to see. And the part about this that rocks me is that they felt no shame. They didn’t feel awkward. They didn’t feel embarrassed. They didn’t get uncomfortable. They didn’t question how they looked to anyone or to God. They were completely exposed in front of God and everyone, and they were ok with it.
This idea in my head is so incredibly beautiful. It is something that reveals more to me about love and trust. I can’t put my finger on what exactly it is and I don’t even know if it can be put into words. But I believe that this requires a level of love and trust that I have never experienced before in my life, but when I think about it, I believe that each of us craves from deep within our souls; this level of love and trust in each other and in God.
For those of you that don’t know this bible story, shortly after God created this beautiful thing, the man and woman screw the whole thing up by eating from a tree in the garden that they were told not to eat from thanks to Satan and his trickery. This story in the bible is called “The Fall of Man”.
So right now, I am going to share with you the story of what happens right after they eat this fruit.
Genesis 3:7-13—Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”
They instantly became judgers of themselves, each other, and God and they decided that they should blame others for their actions. They messed the whole beautiful thing up. The way it was supposed to be, is no longer the way it is.
In my next four blogs, I would like to share with you how God is relating this story to me and what he is teaching me about myself and how he is transforming my heart.
As they are posted, feel free to click on the links below to get any of the next blogs in this series.
The Fall of Kyle: I Don’t Trust You
The Fall of Kyle: I Don’t Trust God
The Fall of Kyle: It’s Your Fault
The Fall of Kyle: Being Stripped
