Wow, here we are into the second week of January already! Time flies, but it’s not too late to start your readings in Genesis. I already shared our daughter Melody’s pastor’s treatment of Genesis 3, the first promise of Jesus’ first coming. A shorter version of Genesis 3, offered by a famous comedian, is:

And God said, “Don’t eat the forbidden fruit!” And they said, “Where is it?”

There aren’t many bright spots after the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2, but here’s one I saw in a new way this year:

When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he had Methuselah. Enoch walked steadily with God. After he had Methuselah, he lived another 300 years, having more sons and daughters. Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him. (Genesis 5.21 – 24, MSG)

Did you notice? Enoch “walked steadily with God” in the midst of real life, still fathering sons and daughters. We are sometimes tempted to think that to be wholly devoted to God we have to withdraw from the world. Enoch didn’t do that, and neither did Jesus.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Luke 7.34, ESV)