Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, September 12, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return. Having utterly blown it with God—deciding not to trust God to take care of them, but instead trying to become their own gods—humans are forced to leave the place of their innocence. And in a beautiful example of poetic justice, the humans who God made from the dirt now have to toil in the dirt from which they were made in order to survive.
It is, of course, allegorical. But there is much to take away from this story for us today. We are so often our own worst enemies. We are so consumed with trying to control our world in order to feel secure that we completely miss out on God’s promise to provide us with all that we really need. It is not God who punishes us by expelling us from the garden, but we who punish ourselves by refusing to recognize the garden all around us. The truth is that God continues to invite us back into the garden every day and promises to sustain us in all things. If only we could let go long enough to accept the invitation!
What cares and worries have caused me to banish myself from the Garden of Eden? How can I heed God’s invitation to let God care for me?
