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Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, Day 1. Jan Ist

By Anita Mathias

Genesis 1

The Beginning
 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
It sounds like the creative process, doesn’t it? You have nothing, everything is formless and empty and covered by darkness. There is but one thing in your favour.
The Spirit of God hovering over you.
So a reminder as we start this year, perhaps feeling empty and dark and uncertain: God’s Spirit hovers longingly over you.
Come Sweet Spirit fill us.

 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 

It’s amazing–what can happen at the word of God. Light comes from darkness. 

Lord, when you speak, things happen. Just like that.You say it, and it is done. Things can change in a moment, when you say the word
You know where I need light, Lord. Speak the word. Speak creativity over me.

4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 
And it is good, your light.
Help me Lord this year to make the most of the hours of daylight, your lovely light. Help me to rise with the sun, and to sleep early and well.
Sin, interestingly, is known by Paul as the deeds of darkness.

5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
 6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
 9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
    11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
Look at the immense creativity and activity of God. And, we as Christians, and as human being, share God’s nature.
The logical order of creation. Food for animals and humans—even before they are created! The providence of God in action!


 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
Order, rhythms, are built into creation. No wonder part of our very natures crave order, predictability, routines, sacred times and days and years, the days governed, the night governed. 

 20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
Beauty, creativity, abundance, this is so part of God’s very nature. Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with God’s very nature—creativity, ideas teeming, flying, living, fruitful and increasing.

 24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
    26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
 27 So God created mankind in his own image,
   in the image of God he created them;
   male and female he created them.

And that is why we need despair of no man. Because we are made of mud and the breath of God. Made in the image of God!! That is why human goodness will always surprise us.

And so it is never absolutely futile to appeal to someone’s better nature. For we all have it.

And when all appeals to someone’s better nature fail, there is yet one supreme court, prayer, which might move God to file an appeal on your behalf.

Because we are made in the image of God, no one is so impervious to the movement of God that prayer cannot change him or her.

 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 

Interesting—the animals were vegetarian, people were vegetarian. We lived without suffering being involved in our food.
I still think that the best diet might be one which stays as close to vegetarianism and fruitarianism as possible, though I find it hard to do without meat.  So I stick to free-range, organic meat. If I have to eat animals, I want at least to ensure that they have suffered as little as possible in the process.
    31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Genesis 2
 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
Completed: That’s God. What he begins, he finishes. How beautiful are the last words of Jesus on the Cross: It is finished. The blessed relief of those words.
He similarly tells his father, “I have completed the work you have given me to do.
Both Roy and I have pretty mercurial minds, our interests shift, new projects claim our attention. We are both trying to train ourselves to finish what we have started (provided it is worth finishing) before turning our attention to fresh fields and pastures new.
in all their vast array
That’s God for you. Plenitude, abundance. Variety and lots of it. The God of generosity. He’s a great God, and worth serving.

 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

The seventh day, is built into creation, in lunar months, which are roughly 28 days, and in the moon itself which enters into a new phase every 7 days–waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, waning crescent.
One of the best flippant tags I have come across on Sabbath observance is “To get the best results, obey the manufactor’s instructions.” I burn out before the end of the week if I have either work or stress on Sundays, and conversely, thoroughly resting, even catching up on sleep, keeps me fresh and green through the week. 


Adam and Eve
 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 
That’s God for you—life, abundance, it cannot help but spring up.

 Then the LORD God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
And there in a sentence is a complete understanding of human beings—a mixture of dust and clay—fallibility, impermanence, fickleness,  dirt,  we are friable, mouldable, have an immense capacity for ugliness, we are nothing.
We are everything—for God has breathed into us–the breath of God, beauty, permanence, inspiration, loveliness, creative abilities
All men are capable of infinite goodness, kindness and decency—and infinite cruelty and sadism,
Mud and the breath of God. That is what we are.

 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden;
I think it charming that one of God’s first activities was to plant a garden.
Thought and work, the sacred combination.
God thought things into being. But he also chose to work physically for the healthy, happy feeling of sweat and fatigue on brow. He could have thought that garden into being, as today, I could afford to hire a gardener and be an imagineer rather than a gardener. But that would be boring. We would rather work the ground ourselves. So with the ability to think infinite wealth into being, God still chose to labour–for the joy of work.

and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
The perfection of art, things both beautiful and useful. Pleasing to the senses, and good for the body.
Isn’t that still our desideratum for food—that it should be attractive and delicious.

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[e] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 
Man’s first task—to make the earth even more fruitful. And to take care of the earth.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
There are boundaries and prohibitions around any decent life. Without them, nothing gets done. And so one boundary, just one was placed for man—you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
It is not good for the man to be alone. A stark, bare uncompromising statement.
So it is not good for us to accept aloneness. It is important for us to seek friendship, even community if it can be found.
I see friendship as a web of concentric circles around the secret heart of an individual. When you are first getting to know someone else they are somewhere on the outermost circles, and they and you gradually move closer to each other’s true hearts. So friendship is a process one needs to be patient with.

 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
Naming seems to be an essential function of the human mind, the way we take in and absorb reality. In a sense we possess or become friends with something once we know its name.
 I have lived in three continents for at least 10 years each. On each, once I knew the names of the birds, plants, trees and butterflies and foods, I began to feel more at home.

   But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
Stark sad words.

 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
 23 The man said,
   “This is now bone of my bones
   and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
   for she was taken out of man.”
 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
I have been married for 21 years; this is a beautiful description of the bonding in marriage.
Though bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh should really be applied to one’s children, it is interestingly applied to one’s spouse—so deep is the knitting in marriage.
 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
The happiness of marriage—a private kingdom of total acceptance and relaxation.

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Comments

  1. Anita Mathias says

    January 4, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    Thank you so much, Apu, for your encouraging words!
    Blessings,
    Anita
    Mud and the breath of God!

  2. Unknown says

    January 4, 2011 at 10:38 am

    Anita so beautifully explained…Mud and the breath of God that's what we are….and we think we are foreever… we seem to forget that when He will's it and pull's out that breath we will return to dust.

  3. Unknown says

    January 4, 2011 at 10:38 am

    Anita so beautifully explained…Mud and the breath of God that's what we are….and we all live under the illusion that we will always be here,forgetting that when God will's it we will return to the dust.

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If you'll forgive me for adding to the noise of th If you'll forgive me for adding to the noise of the world on Black Friday, my memoir ,Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India, is on sale on Kindle all over the world for a few days. 
Carolyn Weber (who has written "Surprised by Oxford," an amazing memoir about coming to faith in Oxford https://amzn.to/3XyIftO )  has written a lovely endorsement of my memoir:
"Joining intelligent winsomeness with an engaging style, Anita Mathias writes with keen observation, lively insight and hard earned wisdom about navigating the life of thoughtful faith in a world of cultural complexities. Her story bears witness to how God wastes nothing and redeems all. Her words sing of a spirit strong in courage, compassion and a pervasive dedication to the adventure of life. As a reader, I have been challenged and changed by her beautifully told and powerful story - so will you."
The memoir is available on sale on Amazon.co.uk at https://amzn.to/3u0Ib8o and on Amazon.com at https://amzn.to/3u0IBvu and is reduced on the other Amazon sites too.
Thank you, and please let me know if you read and enjoy it!! #memoir #indianchildhood #india
Second birthday party. Determinedly escaping! So i Second birthday party. Determinedly escaping!
So it’s a beautiful November here in Oxford, and the trees are blazing. We will soon be celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary…and are hoping for at least 33 more!! 
And here’s a chapter from my memoir of growing up Catholic in India… rosaries at the grotto, potlucks, the Catholic Family Movement, American missionary Jesuits, Mangaloreans, Goans, and food, food food…
https://anitamathias.com/2022/11/07/rosaries-at-the-grotto-a-chapter-from-my-newly-published-memoir-rosaries-reading-steel-a-catholic-childhood-in-india/
Available on Amazon.co.uk https://amzn.to/3Apjt5r and on Amazon.com https://amzn.to/3gcVboa and wherever Amazon sells books, as well as at most online retailers.
#birthdayparty #memoir #jamshedpur #India #rosariesreadingsecrets
Friends, it’s been a while since I blogged, but Friends, it’s been a while since I blogged, but it’s time to resume, and so I have. Here’s a blog on an absolutely infallible secret of joy, https://anitamathias.com/2022/10/28/an-infallible-secret-of-joy/
Jenny Lewis, whose Gilgamesh Retold https://amzn.to/3zsYfCX is an amazing new translation of the epic, has kindly endorsed my memoir. She writes, “With Rosaries, Reading and Secrets, Anita Mathias invites us into a totally absorbing world of past and present marvels. She is a natural and gifted storyteller who weaves history and biography together in a magical mix. Erudite and literary, generously laced with poetic and literary references and Dickensian levels of observation and detail, Rosaries is alive with glowing, vivid details, bringing to life an era and culture that is unforgettable. A beautifully written, important and addictive book.”
I would, of course, be delighted if you read it. Amazon.co.uk https://amzn.to/3gThsr4 and Amazon.com https://amzn.to/3WdCBwk #joy #amwriting #amblogging #icecreamjoy
Wandering around Oxford with my camera, photograph Wandering around Oxford with my camera, photographing ancient colleges! Enjoy.
And just a note that Amazon is offering a temporary discount on my memoir, Rosaries, Reading, Steel https://amzn.to/3UQN28z . It’s £7.41.
Here’s an endorsement from my friend, Francesca Kay, author of the beautiful novel, “An Equal Stillness.” This is a beautifully written account of a childhood, so evocative, so vivid. The textures, colours and, above all, the tastes of a particular world are lyrically but also precisely evoked and there was much in it that brought back very clear memories of my own. Northern India in the 60s, as well as Bandra of course – dust and mercurochrome, Marie biscuits, the chatter of adult voices, the prayers, the fruit trees, dogs…. But, although you rightly celebrate the richness of that world, you weave through this magical remembrance of things past a skein of sadness that makes it haunting too. It’s lovely!” #oxford #beauty
So, I am not going to become a book-bore, I promis So, I am not going to become a book-bore, I promise, but just to let you know that my memoir "Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India," is now available in India in paperback. https://www.amazon.in/s?k=rosaries+reading+secrets&crid=3TLDQASCY0WTH&sprefix=rosaries+r%2Caps%2C72&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_10My endorsements say it is evocative, well-written, magical, haunting, and funny, so I'd be thrilled if you bought a copy on any of the Amazon sites. 
Endorsements 
A beautifully written account. Woven through this magical remembrance of things past is a skein of sadness that makes it haunting. Francesca Kay, An Equal Stillness. 
A dazzling vibrant tale of childhood in post-colonial India. Mathias conjures 1960s India and her family in uproarious and heart-breaking detail. Erin Hart, Haunted Ground 
Mathias invites us into a wonderfully absorbing and thrilling world of past and present marvels… generously laced with poetic and literary references and Dickensian levels of observation and detail. A beautifully written, important, and addictive book. Jenny Lewis, Gilgamesh Retold 
Tormented, passionate and often sad, Mathias’s beautiful childhood memoir is immensely readable. Trevor Mostyn, Coming of Age in The Middle East.
A beautifully told and powerful story. Joining intelligent winsomeness with an engaging style, Mathias writes with keen observation, lively insight and hard-earned wisdom. Carolyn Weber, Surprised by Oxford 
A remarkable account. A treasure chest…full of food (always food), books (always books), a family with all its alliances and divisions. A feat of memory and remembrance. Philip Gooden, The Story of English
Anita’s pluck and charm shine through every page of this beautifully crafted, comprehensive and erudite memoir. 
Ray Foulk, Picasso’s Revenge
Mathias’s prose is lively and evocative. An enjoyable and accessible book. Sylvia Vetta, Sculpting the Elephant
Anita Mathias is an is an accomplished writer. Merryn Williams, Six Women Novelists
Writing a memoir awakens fierce memories of the pa Writing a memoir awakens fierce memories of the past. For the past is not dead; it’s not even past, as William Faulkner observed. So what does one do with this undead past? Forgive. Forgive, huh? Forgive. Let it go. Again and again.
Some thoughts on writing a memoir, and the prologue to my memoir
https://anitamathias.com/2022/09/08/thoughts-on-writing-a-memoir-the-prologue-to-rosaries-reading-secrets/ 
#memoir #amwriting #forgiveness https://amzn.to/3B82CDo
Six months ago, Roy and I decided that finishing t Six months ago, Roy and I decided that finishing the memoir was to be like “the treasure in the field,” that Jesus talks about in the Gospels, which you sacrifice everything to buy. (Though of course, he talks about an intimate relationship with God, not finishing a book!!) Anyway, I’ve stayed off social media for months… but I’ve always greatly enjoyed social media (in great moderation) and it’s lovely to be back with the book now done  https://amzn.to/3eoRMRN  So, our family news: Our daughter Zoe is training for ministry as a priest in the Church of England, at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. She is “an ordinand.” In her second year. However, she has recently been one of the 30 ordinands accepted to work on an M.Phil programme (fully funded by the Church of England.) She will be comparing churches which are involved in community organizing with churches which are not, and will trace the impact of community organizing on the faith of congregants.  She’ll be ordained in ’24, God willing.
Irene is in her final year of Medicine at Oxford University; she will be going to Toronto for her elective clinical work experience, and will graduate as a doctor in June ‘23, God willing.
And we had a wonderful family holiday in Ireland in July, though that already feels like a long time ago!
https://anitamathias.com/2022/09/01/rosaries-readi https://anitamathias.com/2022/09/01/rosaries-reading-secrets-a-catholic-childhood-in-india-my-new-memoir/
Friends, some stellar reviews from distinguished writers, and a detailed description here!!
https://amzn.to/3wMiSJ3 Friends, I’ve written a https://amzn.to/3wMiSJ3  Friends, I’ve written a memoir of my turbulent Catholic childhood in India. I would be grateful for your support!
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