The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Monday, 8 February 2021

 The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Monday, 8 February 2021

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection <info@mc.cor.org>

Monday, 8 February 2021

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection GPS Guide for Monday, 8 February 2021

Created to be together

Daily Scripture:

Genesis 1:26-28

26 Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”

27 God created humanity in God’s own image,

in the divine image God created them,

male and female God created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.”

Genesis 2:18

18 Then the LORD God said, “It’s not good that the human is alone. I will make him a helper that is perfect for him.”

Reflection Questions:

Ancient Hebrew culture passed down two creation stories (Genesis 1-2). Both archetypal stories carried cues pointing to the social nature of humans—that we need one another. The Genesis 1 story said, “in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.” The Genesis 2 story was even clearer—a solitary human needed a “helper.” “The person most often described as a help in Scripture is God; your helper is the strong one who is capable of getting you out of a mess.”*

What key message(s) do you find in the poetic lines of Genesis 1:27: “God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.” What key qualities do you believe make up “God’s own image”? In what important ways can we humans share in those qualities? What does this tell you about your need for other people?

A handbook for Bible translators said, “Fit for him [“perfect for him” in the Common English Bible] is literally “alongside him” or “corresponding to him.” The sense is “suitable for him, adequate for him,” or perhaps even “like him.”** Saying that “It is not good that the human is alone” is crucial in how we see male/female gender issues, but reaches beyond that. What people have been “helpers” in that Biblical sense in your life?

Prayer:

God of creation, those ancient Hebrews could see that you created lots of us to share the Earth. As children we still need to learn to share—help me keep learning that vital lesson. Amen.

* John Goldingay, Genesis for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–16. Nashville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p. 40.

** William D. Reyburn and Euan McG. Fry, A Handbook on Genesis. New York: United Bible Societies, 1997, p. 71.

Want more reflection on today's GPS?

Read the GPS Insight by Ginny Howell

Ginny Howell

Ginny Howell serves on the Resurrection staff in Guest Connections. She is mom to three adult daughters and g-momma to one sweet little grandson, Hezakiah.

My youngest daughter looks different than I do. Well, all my daughters look different than I do, but especially my youngest. In the simplest possible terms, I’m a freckled, fair-skinned ginger and she’s got dark hair with beautiful, radiant dark brown skin (the photo over this blog shows the two of us on her first day of college). While we don’t look alike, we share many similarities, maybe more than a 19-year-old might want to admit about being like her mom.

She is a very logical thinker, detests injustice, loves word puzzles and if given the opportunity, would adopt every animal that needs rescuing and treat each one as if it were the most important creature on all the earth. I am strong willed, more competitive than I’d like to admit, empathetic and fiercely protective of the people I love. Either of those statements holds 100% true for me or my daughter, any day of the week.

When she was about seven years old, my grandmother, my mother and I took all of my girls to go see the movie Evan Almighty. My grandmother and my youngest daughter also shared a lot of similarities--both had infectious laughs, took every opportunity to be ornery or pull a bit of a prank on someone, and loved video games, sharing Nintendo DS tips before Sunday family dinner. My brown-skinned little girl with braided pigtails and my sweet southern grandmother with her beauty shop hair and Red Door perfume usually ended up sitting next to each other when we went to the movies.

At one point in the movie, my daughter realized that the character Morgan Freeman was portraying was God. Sitting between me and my grandmother, my daughter looked up, her chest filled with pride, and said, “Look, mommy, God looks like ME!!!!” Slightly choked up from the beauty of her revelation, I said, “Yes, honey, God looks like you, and like me, and like your sisters and your grandmother…we are made in God’s image, so God looks like all of us.”

It requires all of us together to even begin to understand the magnitude, beauty and diversity of God. In my world, very little of the connectedness I share with people has to do with biological relationships or DNA. Yet I couldn’t be more blessed by the gift of “them” that God created in God’s own image. “Them” is us. The universal “we” are the full breadth and depth of God’s creation.

It was actually 19 years ago today, February 8, 2002, that I first met my daughter. She and her sisters arrived at my home around 10 p.m. on a Friday night, driven by a kind man who worked for the local foster care agency. We had been asked if we’d take care of the girls for the weekend. Her sisters were 3 and 5, and both had already fallen asleep in the car. She was nine months old and didn’t seem to have the slightest intention of going to sleep anytime soon. I was sitting on the floor in my living room, her rocking in the bouncy seat with the opening ceremony of the Olympics playing on my TV like muzak in the background, and couldn’t shake the feeling of something much, much bigger than the two of us in the room. I remember staring into her big brown eyes and thinking, “This little girl’s name is Destiny…wonder what that means for her…wonder what that means for me…”

She has taught me much in the past 19 years, especially how to seek out ways for all children (and adults) to see that the beauty of their own image matches that of God. If you didn’t catch the Wednesday evening program, Experiencing Black History, last week, I highly encourage you to go to www.cor.org/live and watch the replay. There will be another program this week on Wednesday evening, again led by our Pastor of Community Justice, Rev. Cheryl Jefferson Bell. I highly encourage you to take the time to watch, listen and share in this important and sacred experience.

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If you have a question or comment about today’s GPS or Insights blog, you can send it to GPS@cor.org. We read them all, but because of the number of responses we receive, cannot guarantee replies.

You might also like:

Prayer Tip: Better Together

“The things that can’t be seen are eternal”

God brings good even out of suffering

Prayer instead of anxiety and fear

Jesus taught patient, persistent prayer

Or download this week's printable GPS.

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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.

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