Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. ”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, September 8, 2019
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Humans were created to be in relationship with others.
This is the second of the creation stories. Here, God has made a much rougher version of earth—in process, but not complete. (The earth was watered, for example, by steam rising from the ground rather than from rain.) In this story, God made humans first (before animals). Well, human anyway. God made Adam (in Hebrew, “to be red” like the ruddy complexion of a human) from the earth (also a play on words of the Hebrew “adamah,” meaning “earth”).
While it seems Adam is enough for God, Adam himself seems to be missing something. First God tries to give him a companion in the animals, but their company is not enough. Finally, God makes a woman from the man’s rib and the man has a suitable companion. (“Helper,” by the way, is the same Hebrew word “ezer,” which is the same word used to describe God as a “helper” of the people.)
The key focal point of this second creation story then, is not how or when God created plants and animals, but on God’s relationship with humanity. God places Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. God tells them they have dominion over all things and can do anything except eat from the tree of knowledge. It may be a test or it might just be an arrangement necessary for creating the relational characteristics of trust, interdependence, obedience, and free will.
Human beings are relational from the moment of their creation.
Explore what it means to be a healthy, functioning, relational being in your context. Share what it means for you with someone who matters to you.
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