I'm so sorry that it's taken me so long to post, but I've had this idea in my head for a while and I wanted to really give it some time to develop. Buuuut I'm not really even sure if that has helped because every time I sit down and try to write this I get distracted and start watching episodes of The Office. Life is rough. On a more relevant note, bear with me as I attempt to organize the lovely combination of both my thoughts and the thoughts of Scott Hahn;
God ain't nothing but a hound dog....
Except he's actually a lot more than just a hound dog, and is definitely not the type of "hound dog" that Mr. Presley was referring to. But hear me out! What I mean is that God loves us so much that he has been chasing us through all eternity, chasing you through time, hounding after you since before you came to be.
Allow me to further elaborate, starting with the very first story in our bibles; Adam & Eve. To refrain from boring you, with fact upon juicy biblical fact, I even whipped out my fierce artistry skills in order to illustrate!
So God made Adam in his image and likeness. Then made Eve popped out from Adam's side, yada yada yada. So it's been 6 long days of laboriously creating the universe and the life it held, so naturally what did God do? Naptime. Wait What? On the seventh day HE RESTED?! Now why on the good earth would the all powerful God have gone and done a thing like that? There is no way he needed to rest, he's GOD.
I'm not God so I can't answer for him, but I will take a whack at it from what we know in the good book. The seventh day is this day of rest, but in Hebrew the word for "seven" is sheba. The cool part is this; sheba doesn't only mean "seven" as in the number "7", it is also a verb! It means to swear a covenant oath.
Well, what's a covenant? I'm so glad you asked! It's kinda something like this:
A covenant isn't an exchange of goods or promises, but and exchange of persons! Hint: marriage is a covenant. So next time you go to mass, you are renewing your covenant with God! Aww yea, have you ever heard the mass called "The marriage supper of the lamb"? Yep. That's why! SO GOOD - but another time, another post.
Fun Fact: Throughout the whole creation story in Genesis, God is referred to in Hebrew as Elohim, a very formal word for God or Mighty One. He is referred to as this up until the seventh day upon establishing his covenant. After this he is referred to as Yahweh Elohim, which is best translated as Lord God. It is a deeply personal and familial title. INTERESTING!!! On the last day of creation at it's very peak, God brought us into his very family. He became not just our, but our father. Until the ever unexpected plot twist:
Allow me to further elaborate, starting with the very first story in our bibles; Adam & Eve. To refrain from boring you, with fact upon juicy biblical fact, I even whipped out my fierce artistry skills in order to illustrate!
Unblemished Eden
So God made Adam in his image and likeness. Then made Eve popped out from Adam's side, yada yada yada. So it's been 6 long days of laboriously creating the universe and the life it held, so naturally what did God do? Naptime. Wait What? On the seventh day HE RESTED?! Now why on the good earth would the all powerful God have gone and done a thing like that? There is no way he needed to rest, he's GOD.
I'm not God so I can't answer for him, but I will take a whack at it from what we know in the good book. The seventh day is this day of rest, but in Hebrew the word for "seven" is sheba. The cool part is this; sheba doesn't only mean "seven" as in the number "7", it is also a verb! It means to swear a covenant oath.
Well, what's a covenant? I'm so glad you asked! It's kinda something like this:
A covenant isn't an exchange of goods or promises, but and exchange of persons! Hint: marriage is a covenant. So next time you go to mass, you are renewing your covenant with God! Aww yea, have you ever heard the mass called "The marriage supper of the lamb"? Yep. That's why! SO GOOD - but another time, another post.
Fun Fact: Throughout the whole creation story in Genesis, God is referred to in Hebrew as Elohim, a very formal word for God or Mighty One. He is referred to as this up until the seventh day upon establishing his covenant. After this he is referred to as Yahweh Elohim, which is best translated as Lord God. It is a deeply personal and familial title. INTERESTING!!! On the last day of creation at it's very peak, God brought us into his very family. He became not just our, but our father. Until the ever unexpected plot twist:
The threat.
Sometimes, upon reading this part of the story I can't help but deduce that Adam and Eve were brainless know-nothings who I should have replaced. I would obviously have said NO to evil and YES to God. It's just common sense, it usually ends up working out better for everyone! But would I have, really?
You see, the Hebrew word for serpent in the Old Testament is nahash, which can mean dragon or sea monster. One can conclude that they weren't at a loss for words upon facing a cute little garden snake...there is no doubt whatsoever that they faced a life-threatening force. So they gave in and they accepted God's version of death, spiritual death, rather than accepting martyrdom or even calling on God for help. Interestingly enough, after this point in Genesis we regress back to God being referred to as strictly Elohim, losing his familial title. We lost our place in the family, not because God kicked us out, but because we chose it. The result; Adam & Eve hid from God in shame, and hence we have the very beginning of a long trend of running from the Great Hound. How silly because he runs faster, much faster.
Through the generations, God tried to gather his people back to him through new covenants with all of these guys, (NO this is not the Burly Beards Club!) Unfortunately all of them fell short for some reason or another, all coming right back down to a trend our oldest relatives started; sin. Bummer.
Lucky for us God is quite clever, persistent, and the mastermind of all happy endings! He wanted us back and he knew just how to be absolutely sure that this would happen! Many moons later another son of God was in a garden called Gethsemane. He was tempted and faced with a decision and certain death, but he didn't give in. He left the garden and walked up to another tree, but this time he let that tree conquer him, not the other way around. To give you a visual:
Case in point, we were sniffed out and caught be the faithful hound. And quite literally, THANK GOD for that because whoever eats the fruit of the above tree will certainly not die. And that my friends is a direct promise, no, COVENANT from God.
May God bless & keep you this day and always,
Bridget Ann
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