Our First Home by Jon Opgenorth

Our First Home January 2, 2019 Read: Genesis 2:8-24 And the LORD God planted a garden. (v. 8) Thinking about home resurfaces memories and stirs longings. I can still see the linoleum pattern on the kitchen floor of my childhood home, the Formica table with chrome trim, and where each of the kids sat. I can still conjure up the smells and tastes of Sunday dinners with mashed potatoes and homegrown green beans. I see the old barn on the yard and the gravel circle drive lined with apple trees. One detail I’d rather not remember is the cold Wisconsin wind howling through the thin farmhouse walls! What do you remember about your first home? The details of Genesis 2 speak of God’s deep and personal care in making Eden. God rolls up his sleeves and gets to work: he plants a garden, he puts Adam in it, and he makes trees spring up that are easy on the eyes and good for the stomach. There is not just a river, but a river with four forks; one called Havilah contains not just gold but good gold! Then God takes a rib out of sleeping Adam and makes his lovely wife. Vegetation and animals and rivers—all cared for in community by Adam and Eve. Our first home. I ask again, what details do you remember about your first home? How did you stay warm in winter? Who did you sit by around the table? Let’s thank God for his meticulous care in creation and his personal involvement in your life to make each of us at home with him. —Jon Opgenorth As you pray, thank God for how he has cared for you.