Hide and Seek

This year is the 150th anniversary of West End, and one of the things we’re doing is reading the entire Bible, selecting passages from beginning to end, for our Sunday scriptures. Today we begin with Genesis and the six days of creation as told in Genesis 1. That there are two creation stories (Genesis 1, then Genesis 2-3) points out that these stories are stories of faith and God’s relationship to people. On the sixth day God created humans and gave humans power over all creation, then looked at creation and declared it “very good.” We are all made in the image of God. The second creation story is of God creating a human from the earth, then seeing that human needed a companion and creating one. Then God created the garden to serve their every need. But those humans, Adam and Eve, sought more and ate the forbidden fruit, immediately feeling shame and hiding from God. At the end of the story, God provides for them and goes with them as God will do with us. Today is also the day we remember our baptism, and when we touch the water in remembrance and declare, “Here I am,” God answers by declaring God’s love for us.