Genesis 1:27 NKJV
Genesis 2:8 NKJV
The Beginning: Part Three
The Genesis account from Chapter 1:27 and Chapter 2:8 made me think of the time I spent working for a newspaper. I started the job in the late 1980’s as part time only. I was hired to create advertisements. The challenge for me (which I wasn’t aware of when I took the job) was that the ads needed to be created on a computer. Computers were relatively a new thing in the late 1980’s, so it meant I had to LEARN how to use a computer. In addition to that, the computers owned by the newspaper office were MACS. I did not even know what a MAC and a PC were!
I was 35 years old and I was about to embark on one of the biggest adventures of my life, but it didn’t look like that at the time. It turned out, I was terrible at my job. I mean, really terrible. No matter how hard I tried, every ad that I created ended up getting scrambled in a heap on the screen. I often left work in tears.
One day, while I was struggling to negotiate with the mouse and the screen, the Publisher showed up at my desk. He was an older gentleman and his family had been publishing newspapers in that part of Missouri for generations. He sat down to ask me questions. He asked me about my past experience with newspapers. I honestly told him that my only experience was from high school when I wrote for my high school paper (Go RHS!). He asked me about my educational background. At that time I had completed two years of college. He looked at me for a long while, thanked me, and walked away.
I started looking for my personal items because I expected him to tell the manager of the paper to release me.
Instead, much to my surprise, in a little while he came back carrying a few legal pads and a handful of sharpened pencils. He said to me, “you’re going to write stories for the newspaper.” Later I discovered he had been doing the writing and he realized he needed to step back.
I took to the streets and started writing stories about what was going on in that county. I had to travel to other towns to find out what was going on in their communities as well. I knew very little about journalism, but I learned quickly because I ‘my back was up against the wall.’
I knew from high school English that I loved to write. In college English classes I always got A’s so other people came to me asking me to teach them how to write. While at the newspaper I found my journalistic style. Then I realized I LOVED my job!
Then one day not long after I started writing, the Publisher came to my desk carrying his prized possession. He laid his new Nikon camera and all the equipment on my desk and he said, “now you will start taking pictures to go with your stories.”
Remember this was the late 1980’s. I had never touched an expensive camera in my life. It was a film camera and we did have a fellow who developed the film in house. I thought, ‘well at least I don’t have to develop the film.’
I did learn how to take pictures. Eventually, I ended up having to learn how to develop the film. Then I became Editor of the newspaper.
As I learned each new task the old fashioned way, I only learned many new things. Eventually, I discovered the most difficult aspect of being a journalist is getting to the whole truth of the story. Often I would interview several people and instead of one account, I would walk away with numerous accounts of the same event that didn’t really match. I had to look for the truth.
Little did I know at that time that skill would be one of the most valuable pieces of information I would learn. The county I worked for was North of Columbia, Missouri. Working for the newspaper gave me an unquenchable thirst for more knowledge. Eventually I resigned my job at the newspaper and I enrolled back in college. I struggled about majoring in journalism or speech communication but I decided to stick with my ‘default’ first love. I’d been giving speeches since 7th Grade at Pittman Jr. High School, and that’s what I decided to major in.
Years later, in 2007, God tapped me on the shoulder and told me to go to Seminary. I became a different kind of investigative journalist. Now, I dig through scripture, I pray, I wait and listen for the still small voice of God, and I look to tell the story that God shows me. God had a plan all along.
When I think of God’s plan for a special garden I realize that the plan for the garden was intentional. God’s desire is that man would have everything he needed to survive and thrive.
When we compare the account of the creation of man in Genesis 1:27 we realize it says God made man in the image of God, “male and female He created them”. The account in Genesis 1 makes us think that it was a one event seamless piece in creation. However, we learn in Genesis 2:8, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.”
Ahhh...the plot thickens.
When God finished planting the garden, He put MAN in the garden. the text says, “man whom He had formed.” In the beginning of Genesis 2 there is no mention of woman. So, I wonder, why the two different accounts?
Hummmm...are they different? I remember my old newspaper days about different views of the same event. I ask, are they two two different accounts, or are they two different views of the same account?
Yes. They are the same. Yes, they are different. Yes, they build on each other.
In Genesis 2:8, God planted a garden. The Garden was in Eden. God put the man in the garden in Eden.
To add to my story, when I started this blog I soon realized that because different venues online require an illustration, I knew that I needed pictures. I’ve been a doodler all my life and I did illustrations for three children’s books (which I’ve not published yet). Because I knew I couldn’t afford to hire an artist to do 12+ illustrations a week, I took to doing my own illustrations for the blog. I am on a learning curve, BUT I found once again that I love what God is teaching me (even though I have a lot to learn).
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: God’s Plan
Today, think about how God has built a plan for you. Write down a short list of how God has directed you and is directing you. Be blessed by God’s plan for you. If you need help with your plan, ask God to show it to you.
In God, Deborah
acrazyjourney.com
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