A few days ago, the sweet girl and I reached a milestone. We finished up a nearly year-long journey through the Bible.
Last August, right around the time we began the new school term, we began reading in Genesis for our morning Bible reading. Our morning time is the most prolonged reading/learning time we have in the Scriptures most days. Although we didn't read the entire Bible this year, we did read large portions of each book. I tried to read significant passages (with at least key verses/passages in shorter books) so she would get a taste for each book, what it said and how it was saying it.
We've been using the International Children's Bible as our version. And last week, we finished up with the final words in Revelation. (As the sweet girl likes to say, the Bible goes from "In" to "Amen"!)
Our recent time in Revelation may have something to do with her musing yesterday, which seemingly came out of nowhere, "everything has an ending." As I reminded her, everything has a beginning too! And we're back to the beginning this week, because as soon as finished up with that final "Amen" that's what she wanted to do...go back to the beginning and start all over. That made my heart sing!
I find myself almost wishing there was something beautiful we could do to mark the occasion of beginning anew with the story. I once helped rolled a Torah scroll in the synagogue to mark the beginning of a new season in their lectionary. I've always loved the beauty of Torah covers, and am thankful for the lighting of the Advent candles that mark the church's move into the new year's Bible reading too.
The sweet girl really loves the book of Genesis. I'm so delighted that she does, because it has long been one of my favorite books. I still recall hearing a sermon series preached on Genesis when I was just a few years older that S. is now, and how that series (though long and pitched to adults, not children) captured my imagination. Certain characters and stories in Genesis have always stood out to me in sharp relief, and certain passages feel huge and momentous.
I love that this is the book where everything begins, and where we're introduced to the living God. I love how we get to know God: his delight in making, his even deeper delight in saving, his ardent desire to rescue and win the world back once our disobedience takes us far from him. I love how we get to know his people, in all their messy fallenness, and how we see ourselves in them. I especially love the moments where everything seems poised, on tip-toes, for God's inbreaking, and how everything seems to paint a picture of his rescuing love: bits of songs and prophecies, God's clothing of Adam and Eve, his shutting of the door of the ark, a rainbow arched in the sky, God's voice and call suddenly sounding out loud and clear to Abram, the ram in the thicket, the window opened onto heaven and the ladder of angels in a very ordinary place as scheming Jacob sleeps, dreams dreamed, men weeping as they reconcile with brothers. I love how the Spirit broods over the face of the deep in the very first verses and continues to hover, and how the whole book, though the first of God's revelation, is already shot through with that deep vision of the triune God, God-in-community, like a gold ribbon we're going to see again and again as the story continues to unfold in the pages of Scripture.
God's love song starts in Genesis, and it's so utterly beautiful. I'm so thankful my daughter loves to hear it. I pray that her ears will become more attuned to God's love song the longer she reads his words and lives in his world.
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