Risk for Reward?

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ And God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over te fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
"-- the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.’” Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15-17

“God designed them in His own image, desiring to recognise something of Himself in them. They were like a mirror, reflecting back His own likeness. But Adam and Eve had another distinction as well: alone of all God’s creatures, they have a moral capacity to rebel against their Creator. They were, in a word, free. ‘Man is God’s risk,’ said one theologian. Another, Soren Kierkegaard, put it this way: ‘God has, so to speak, imprisoned Himself in His resolve.’ How can a sovereign God take risks or imprison Himself? Yet God’s creation of man and woman approached that kind of astonishing self-limitation.” *

God could have sent His angels to keep everything around Adam and Eve in order or just have created everything to be self-maintaining or done it Himself. Instead He handed His trust over to His creation, hoping in the potential power of His love to motivate them. What a risk He took for the potential reward of being loved by His creation.

Take care to understand His Word. Your servant and friend in Christ, Darlene

PS: New Request: Sue, recovered from cancer, now battling with a rare & related condition (paraneoplastic syndrome). Earl, with cancer, needs bone marrow & for Lyle who may be a match. Adrian for loss of a special friend.

Praise: Leslie has completed her chemo and no signs of cancer remain. Thanks to all who prayed faithfully. Freddy came home to see his mom! David (great health now!); Nancy (with head trauma) has passed 6 month mark and doing well. The other Nancy continues her battle with Ovarian Cancer

Thanksgiving for: Reg, Carla and Paul.

Continue to pray for: Tim & Barb (need work & encouragement as they wait); Deb, special friend with multiple Myeloma, Isaias (family safety & his mission work in Philippines); Adrian with significant life changes. God’s grace on USA. Wisdom for doctors caring for Doris, David, Poetry and Gary. Rape victim, hit & run victim; Michael (his mum grows more frail); Randy (unexpected changes in his life). For Kevin (wisdom with his son).

*Disappointment With God, by Philip Yancey