Jesus in Paul’s Letters
When tasked with finding Jesus in Paul’s letters, I searched for common themes among his messages to the churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae. Certainly, there is more than one I am about to address, but the word I found is the very one that takes me back to my favorite verse in the Bible—Genesis 3:8.
When Adam and Eve fell into the sin the LORD had warned them about (disobedience to His word of truth) and tried to cover their shame, the scripture says: they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
What was He coming to do?
The Goodness of God: In Genesis
While some will look at the events in the Book of Genesis as displays of God’s judgment, I only see His goodness. I’m not blind to the curses in the Garden, the hailstones that reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, or the men who left their brother for dead; I just don’t see those things as coming from a harsh, judgmental God.
I see goodness.
Let me explain.
The Goodness of God: In the Beginning (Genesis 1-3)
Most of us have had those moments. Where something drastic happened, that changed the course of our expected life. If it hasn’t happened yet, someday it will. It could be the birth of a baby with unforeseen health problems, a traumatic car accident, the unexpected death of a family member, or the end of a once hope-filled marriage. Unfortunately, we live in a world that has fallen well below its potential.
For myself, I was a happy-go-lucky kid born and raised in a small town (>950) surrounded by the cornfields of Nebraska, who had a life ahead of her that looked a lot like those who surrounded me: graduate high school, get a bachelor’s degree, come back and settle down with a husband to raise a family, spending time in church all week. But that’s not exactly how it worked out. Right before my 6th grade year, I was in a car with my maternal grandmother when we were hit by an intoxicated driver. My Grandma was killed instantly; he was paralyzed from the neck down, and the way I looked at the world was forever changed.
I wrestled with whether God was and is good in those early moments. Would a good God allow a child to be traumatized? Would a good God take a woman of valor from this earth right as she began to disciple her granddaughter?