Thoughts for another day

February 25, 2009.

Today's verse: Gen. 3:19. for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (KJV)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

You know, when I read the particular section in Genesis which shows how God deals with Adam after he sins, I feel a great sense of agony. You will too when you read it carefully. The redeeming factor is that the serpent, the devil, is severely reprimanded and it’s here that God gives the promise of the Savior of the world when He says, ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’

The other things that follow from God make clear how abominable sin is to God. Because of sin, God threw out Adam from Paradise where if he were, he’d never have to slave to have his meal. But Adam sinned and because he sinned upon the woman’s suggestion, God cursed the woman and brought about pain in her childbearing. Then God cursed the ground due to which it lost the ability to bring forth vegetation of its own and also produced thistles and thorns (weeds). God burdened Adam with the concept of hard work through which alone he’d be able to bring forth crops for food until he went back into the ground from where he came in the first place.

Our verse today, reminds us of our frailty. This verse is ‘key’ for us to remember as we enter the season of Lent today being Ash Wednesday (Many mainline churches follow Ash Wednesday) and realise we don’t come to earth with permanency. It’s only this realization which will help us get a right perspective of our birth here and the purpose for which we are born. It’s important for me to know that I am as the dust of the earth. This gives rise to a whole new revelation of what I need to be and do. From this, if I can glean that I’m wonderfully made to serve God and man, then my path toward eternal Paradise becomes clear; on which I need walk and reach my God.