In my last post I said that Genesis 1 reveals God’s mission to establish an orderly and beautiful world where everything is blessed and thriving governed by humans who are like Him and reflect His Image in everything they do.

To truly represent Him, we have to know Him and be like Him.

God forbids physical images of Himself to be made, and presents Himself to us as the invisible Wind that moves and causes things to be and to live. He does not want us to focus on superficial things.

We often say of a child, “You have your father’s eyes,” or “You have your mother’s smile.” But God defines Parenthood as much more than simple physical markers. The first men in the bible called “fathers” were fathers of technologies not children.

To be God’s child, His Image, requires us to walk like Him, talk like Him, share His mission, yes, but also His methods and means.

This is the reason that Jesus rebuked the religious masks and pretentions of the scholars and leaders of His day so vehemently. Superficial masks, hypocrisies, that do not touch the heart of a person can never carry the weight of His Presence to a world waiting to Live. You cannot use the devil’s tools to build God’s Kingdom.

So, what are God’s methods? How are we to bring good to everyone, and know that we are serving on the right team?

I believe Genesis 2 gives us the first “keys” to the Kingdom.  In Genesis 2, God gives the first command ever given to mankind, “Eat freely, but do not take fruit from this tree.” The principle behind this command is do not take what has not been given. Do not usurp the authority of your leaders. Do not take pleasure from someone else’s spouse. Do not “borrow” your neighbor’s car.

In fact, do not even covet. You must face your own desires and rule over them. Nip in the bud theses desires that are a wildfire in your soul and have the power to destroy everything that We would build together.

It is a simple command, but it carries giant implications. We say “Power corrupts.” But it doesn’t have to. Jesus carried great power, but it did not corrupt Him, because He held this first key in His character. He had the ability to resist using His power in self-serving ways. Until you can separate your own desires from what is right or wrong, you cannot lead with goodness. 

Genesis 2 gives us another key as well. “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.” This is the other “guardrail” that keeps us from being water and fire without boundaries.

Water in a river can give life. So can fire in a hearth or oven. But either one in excess without boundaries on its use will destroy. They hold great power, but corrupt power without restraint. The first key restrains on one side, this key restrains on the other side.

Do not take what has not been given is a guardrail on the one side. Do not shake off and run from what has been given is the guardrail on the other side.

This key, this method, is just as simple and profound as the first. Our actions have consequences. Don’t ignore those consequences. Don’t run from them and let them carry on unsupervised like orphaned children. This will undo the Garden we are tending to have wild feral offspring running everywhere.

You do not have to “marry” yourself to any endeavor you do not want to, but if you do, you bind yourself by covenant to be a father to what you produce. You can not just set things in motion, use something or someone in the moment, and then walk away.

There is a point of intersection between these two. Where the path becomes very straight and very narrow! Where finding the Image of God in our actions is both difficult and painful.

When something is fathered, and a father is present, but the child does not give honor to the father. Sometimes we want to impart something of ourselves to our “children” but they refuse to be formed by us. When the command to do for them what a father should collides with do not take from them what they do not freely give, then there is prayer!

The grief of a loving parent over a wandering child is the shared experience of every disciple of God. We all have had that moment in our lives when His love felt like discipline and we ran from Him. And if we return and we continue to let Him Father us, we will run into those who resist our love for them as well. We carry His cross and walk His path to Calvary. The test is to stay within the guardrails. To give a Father’s love, without taking honor that has not been given. In that moment, look to the Father. He is still forming Himself in you, with tears and great tenderness.