A New Year!

It's a New Year! I opened my Daily Bible on Thursday and started afresh. "In the beginning God…"  And although I have read them a hundred times, these words are like a warm balm to my heart and soul.  I think Genesis is my favorite book in the Bible. I continued to read, and my heart was so tender to Adam and Eve. Each year that I read the creation story, I see it with new eyes. This time I see Adam and Eve's vulnerability and  frailty and I see myself--- the countless times I've been duped by the enemy's cunning!

As I follow their story, I practically melt as I see the tenderness of God in these verses. Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  Innocence was lost. Shame and fear entered humanity {among other things}.  And they try to hide from the very One who created them.  The relationship they had with God is now forever changed. Sin entered Eden. Their choices have long-reaching repercussions that we are still experiencing today.

As I read along, I'm anticipating the verses when God announces the punishment for their sin, but this time as I read, the words that leap off the page are:

"Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them."  Genesis 3:21

I sense such affection in these words. That the great God of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, would reach down and cover His children is so precious to me!  He is loving regardless of what we do. No matter how bad we mess up, we don't have to hide. We can walk out of the shadows and come to Him as we are. He will not turn us away.

As I read these words in Genesis, my heart is quickened by events that happened thousands of years ago.  God speaks to me through His Word by the power of His Spirit. And little by little, He changes me. Each day that I open His Word, I feed on His faithfulness, His constancy, His love. Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God". (Matt. 4:4)

I'd like to encourage you to read your Bible this year, daily. There are many plans and Bibles to help you with this. I read from The Devotional Daily Bible which you can get here. The girls over at She Reads Truth are doing #365 days of truth and they have an app you can get for your phone. Also, my dear friend, Denise Hughes, has Team 365 that's going through the Bible in a year and you can join them right here.

Here's to a New Year!