Come Home: Tracing God's Promise of Home Through ScriptureSample

The Good Home Maker No one makes a home like God. God built the first home with His word—with His wisdom! (Find a contractor who can do that.) The first home was spectacularly lovely and jam-packed with the fruit of God’s wisdom, crammed with evidence that God’s word is powerful. Day one of creation introduces us to a pattern: God says , God sets , God shows . God said , “Let there be light,” and then, BOOM! There was light. He also set a life-giving boundary—sometimes the light would light (day), and sometimes the light would not (night). God showed His goodness. God called the light good, and of course it was. On day four of creation, God set up the rhythms that form our lives—seasons, days, and years. Notice that He made it so much more than a calendar. He made it beautiful! How many of us have tried to take a picture of a sunset or a starry sky and discovered no camera could truly capture it? The says, sets, shows pattern holds from days two through six of creation. Sometimes, God shows His goodness in an obvious way (“God saw that it was good” is a common refrain), and sometimes, the goodness is implied by the beauty and bounty of His creation. This is a really wonderful thing to consider about God: He didn’t have to make things wonderful, but He did! Confession: I’m prone to think of God as a grumpy, cross-armed principal with a weird mustache, bad suit, coffee breath, and clipboard where He records my many indiscretions. He might say, “Late again, I see,” or “Well, I’ll forgive you, but I’m not happy about it,” or rattle off a bunch of rules designed to squash any semblance of fun. The creation narrative (and probably every other part of the Bible) blows my wrong view of God to smithereens. As we read about our Creator God shaping this beautiful, bountiful home, it’s clear His word is powerful, His boundaries are life-giving, and His goodness is evidenced everywhere. God is not a cross-armed authoritarian whose office we want to avoid or slink away from, but an open-armed Home Maker whose home we want to run to! The first two chapters of Genesis are full of life! God offers life-giving words, God offers life-giving boundaries, and God gives His creation the ability to create more life. Unfortunately, in the third chapter, man and woman defy God's life-giving words by violating His life-giving boundary. They doubted God's goodness, and the result? Nothing good. Stepping outside of God's design is sin, and sin destroys homes. Too often, we’re tempted to be like Eve and think God is holding out on us (Gen. 3:1-7). But the Eden narrative resets our wonky inner compass. God is not just good—He’s the author of good! God not only gives us our lives—He makes our lives lively! The first home equips us to wipe the smudge off our glasses and view the whole concept of home through a clearer lens. Truly, we can trust God’s promises of home—because the whole notion of home has its origin in Him alone. Read Genesis 1:1-25, and praise God for His creation of a good and beautiful home.