“No, That’s Love”

Genesis 3

A brief Introduction.  (Who is this Mark guy anyways?)

The following is an excerpt from my novel "Broken Bricks - How God uses flawed people to build His Kingdom!"

I was born March 5^th, 1976 at 6:00 (something) pm, in the semi-small town of Ypsilanti, Michigan.  (Matter of fact my parents have never moved and are still in the same house they got when they were first married!)  I remember the delivery room as being very bright, cold and scary.  Just kidding! I don’t remember anything about my birth.  I do know that I was born to two loving parents.  Both my mom and dad worked very hard. (Which they learned from their parents.) So, after a time my mother returned to work and I stayed with grandma during the day and occasionally on weekends so mom and dad could have some date time.  How I love and somewhat miss those days at grandma and grandpa’s house in Belleville Michigan.  Mom would drop my sister and I off very early (6:00am or so) and I would sleep in my footie pajamas until grandma would wake me up to see my “sissy” get on the bus.  After seeing my sister off to school, we would sojourn to the kitchen for breakfast. 

This usually consisted of Rice Krispies^TM containing a sliced banana. While grandma made breakfast, we would play a game I came up with called noisy/ quiet sheriff.  You see my grandma had standard cupboards under the counter that had doors on them. I would open two of them back to back, (or technically front to front) and pretend they were saloon doors.  At this point my grandma would say, “Here comes the quiet sheriff” Now I need to break here and preface that my grandpa worked afternoons and was sleeping and grandma would much rather keep it that so early in the morning!  So grandma would emphasize quiet sheriff in her sing song voice and I would slam through the “saloon doors” doing my best John Wayne impersonation walking bowlegged and firing off my finger guns loudly. “BANG BANG!” Of course grandma would then say, “That’s not quiet!” So I would say, “Then say here comes the noisy sheriff.” She would and I would quietly tiptoe out of the cupboard doors and whisper “Stick ‘em up!” then I would giggle.  We loved this game, at least I did.

After breakfast grandma wanted some time to do chores, bible reading, and prayer so she would turn on the TV. (For further information regarding my TV viewing habits at grandma’s house, please read my book “Stuff in my Attic”.)

As I had mentioned before, I would occasionally spend a Friday night with grandma.  After a banana shake. (A grandma specialty) and “The Muppet Show” it was time for bed.  The crib I slept in was in what was known as the “front parlor”.  It was an old farmhouse, and grandpa’s desk was in there along with grandma’s sewing desk, my crib and an authentic cuckoo clock that I just loved that came from Germany. 

It also contained a picture of the Good Shepherd that would light up.  Grandma would use this picture (Shown right) as a night light.  Nearly every time I would ask her, “Why is he carrying that sheep?” Then the following conversation would ensue.

“Because the sheep has a broken leg.”

“But why?”

“Because He broke it so the lamb wouldn’t run away again.”

“That’s mean”

“No, that’s love.”

Sometimes God allows us to run and hide for His purpose.  What is meant for evil, God uses for good.  Looking at our first flawed individual, the “Flawed Father of Sin” if you will, Adam.  Adam was flawed when he put his wife above God.  After that he tried to hide from God.  Did Adam actually think he could hide from his Creator?  Pretty absurd.  Yet, because of that incident God put the Adamic Covenant into place and gave us the very first prophecy concerning His Son, the Lamb of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Emmanuel Christ the one and only Messiah!  Through this, God set a principle for priority that echoed throughout all the generations and continues to this day!  He removed them from the danger of the tree of life by “kicking” them out of the garden and guarding the way.  Remember if they ate from the tree of life (which they were allowed to prior to their sin) they would have lived forever and ever, eternally separated from the love of God.  God said, “NO, I have a better plan.”

Sometimes I feel like I am playing the noisy/quiet sheriff game with God.  Like I am a flawed person and angry at Him for choosing me, (noisy) then I realize that God always uses flawed people because besides Christ, nobody is perfect! (Quiet reflecting sheriff)

Are you playing games with God?  Noisy Sheriff?  Hide n’ Seek?