Genesis Chapters 16-28As I test the Read the Bible in 90 Days Plan, I'm noticing one thing right off the bat. Reading it this way, we're going to see things and themes that we never considered when reading our smaller allotments. I was reading another blogger's comments a couple of weeks ago (it may have been on the "90 Days " site) and he said something about perspective that is right in line with what I'm seeing. On this particular day (Day Two) we see Abraham telling Issac, paraphrased, "Stay away from Cananite women. Get a wife from among our home people...a relative." Then we see Issac turning around and telling Jacob, paraphrased, "Look, don't marry a Cananite woman. Go get a relative from our homeland." Funnier still is Abraham passing Sarah off as his sister. Isaac remembers that dumb trick and does the same with Rebekah.
Life is JUST LIKE THAT! It's a circle and generations continually make the same mistakes and we live the same types of lives and we don't really learn much until we have lived the whole thing, and then we're gone. We know this, and we love life anyway. I got to thinking about this tonight as I ice-skated with Tammy and the kids. I held Olivia's hand as she held the wall and we went around the ice rink. I watched the clock. It took us 32 minutes to go around once. Once. But we had a great time. At one point we were going very slowly. I looked down at the ice and noticed that there were hundreds or thousands of lines in the ice from people going around time after time after time. Everyone here was going in circles...well, ovals...and they were having the time of their lives. We're made to love going in circles. If you've ever roller skated or ice skated you have undoubtedly thought about this before. Even in an activity that is so predictable, you can find peace and enjoyment and satisfaction.
Every year we go to Florida for vacation. We see family. We stay in the same room at the same beach place and build the same sand into sand castles. The only thing that changes is that the kids get a little bigger and we get a little more picky about the shells we collect. We go back and work for another year, look forward to Christmas, begin a new year, and do it all over again. We go round and round. We pursue growing in Christ, and hopefully we get a little closer to Him. We lapse at times but we charge right back and give it another go. We improve, we learn and we live, in circles.
Solomon captures the essence of of this feeling in Chapters One and Two of Ecclesiastes. At the end he comes to the conslusion that, "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"
As followers of Christ, we find meaning and joy in doing it all with God in mind. The difference between living a circular life without Jesus and living it with him is the satisfaction we have in grasping the gift. Each day comes from him. They won't all be fun. But we can live each day with his joy in our hearts and laugh at ourselves when we see our kids falling on the ice, knowing that we've been there before.
