We Are Family

As is often my pattern, I just sat down to write after an evening of leading worship in one of our local prayer rooms.  The freedom, intimacy, and transcendent sense of God’s presence in these meetings have all but ruined me for the Sunday morning shows, but more on that another time.

Tonight, one woman’s prayer deeply moved me. So much so, I sit here continuing to press in to cull the depths of its meaning.  

At that particular moment, we were praying for families; particularly, marriages.  Her prayer included a statement:

From the very beginning, the enemy has tried to destroy the union of man and woman and likewise, destroy their children…

As she continued with her bold intercession, my mind went into lockdown as I considered the reality of what I had just heard.

You don’t have to be a God-believing Christian or Jew to ascertain two things.  First, the Bible is one of the most historically accurate, ancient documents on the planet.  (If your knee-jerk reaction is to mock that assertion, you may want to consider a more rigorous examination).

And second, the raw honesty, timeless wisdom, and sweeping grand narratives of Scripture unfurl an unending depth of human story which, when allowed to be considered, can permeate and inform every facet of human existence toward redemptive reflection.

The creation account in Genesis is no exception.

This piece is not a platform debate on the literalness of each verse.  Rather, I invite the unbeliever and believer alike to consider the account as truth — whether literal or poetic metaphor — for now.

After Elohim created the heavens and the earth, he said:

Let us make humans in our image and in our likeness…

~ God in Genesis, Chapter 1

The “Us” is the most important detail in the whole account.  From the opening of the creation narrative, we already have a God who is singular, yet plural.  Three, but wholly One.  The reason this is crucial is that Elohim is not depicted as an individual, but as a loving community of three persons of the same being.  Father, Son, and Spirit, all present together on page one.

The early church thinkers called this Perichoresis.  The modern term you are probably familiar with is Trinity.   

The etymology of Perichoresis reveals the inherent, multi-dimensional power of this depiction.  Of Greek origin, Peri means around or circle, and Choresis means to make room for, to dance.  It’s where we get the word choreography.

Before you click out to avoid further Theology, consider why this background might be important when considering the divinity of marriage and the primacy of bearing children.

First, God is described as a circularly loving space where three persons intimately make room to honor and enjoy one another in perfect unity,  Next, we are unimaginably created in that same likeness.  

But that begs the question:  If we are born as individuals, how is that reflective of the Us nature of God?

Elohim saw that it was not good for man to be alone, so he created a companion for him who is his complement.

God in Genesis, Chapter 3

Unlike all the other living creatures on Earth, man and woman were of the same bone, same flesh, and same breath of God.  

But, the dance was not yet complete.  If this was to be a family which manifested to the Earth the very image of God, there must be a third to join the union.  

While two are better than one…a three-strand cord is not quickly broken. 

~ The Book of Ecclesiastes

Tragically, before that could happen, the adversary was cued to commence the first deadly assault on marriage.

You know the story.  Eve was deceived by the serpent and Adam followed suit and sinned.  Relegate the story as allegory if you like, but every one of us can cite a myriad of examples where we knew what the right thing to be done was, yet, we proceeded to violate our conscience and commit the unthinkable.  

The fallout of such choices often lasts a lifetime and beyond — save we are rescued.

Resultantly, the newlyweds expunged perfection and were expelled from the garden.  It was in this altered, relocated state that their first two boys were born.  Having destroyed marital perfection, cue the serpent again, but this time to assault the children. 

The New Testament tells us all we need to know about our enemy:

The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy

~ Jesus in the Gospel of John

Our enemy, also known as the accuser or adversary, has never created anything. Evil’s only ability is to counterfeit, deceive, kill and destroy that which is good.  Having successfully stolen perfection from this first couple and destroyed their ability to enjoy creation, now it was a time to kill.

Elohim saw anger brewing in the firstborn and said to him:

Why are you angry?  If you do what is right, you will be fine.  But if you do not do what is right, sin is already waiting at the door.  It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.

~ Elohim to Cain, Genesis, Chapter 4

I recently posted on Social Media that while there is much work to do to sort out racial discrimination and police brutality, can we at least all agree that avoiding criminal behavior and doing the right thing is a noble goal and an important conversation to have?  Our cities are being besieged by the highest occurrences of crime our generation has ever seen, yet our politicians and media refuse to call for enforcement of the law.

Not a single opponent would concede my point.

Behold, the very same ethos captured here in Genesis is manifesting today in the radical social justice movements.  I have yet to see anything beautiful or redemptive created by these activists.  Instead, they seem consumed in anger, accusation and bear the fruits of bitter division in their wake.  

Despite Elohim’s urging to do what is right, Cain murdered his brother Abel with a rock.

That woman’s prayer tonight had been fired like an arrow with deadly accuracy.  

You can now take off your theology hat and simply observe the world we find ourselves in today.  That same serpent slithers to deceive Elohim’s image-bearers, trying to convince them that the better life is found outside the circle dance of love.

Well over 50% of marriages today end in divorce.  Infidelity, abuse, and emotional abandonment continue to poison the marriages which struggle to remain together.  

Worldwide in 2021, there have been over 38 million abortions.  Here in the U.S. this year, we’ve killed over 800,000 babies in the womb.  While SCOTUS deliberates the articles of law, remember we are denying about 100 people the right to breathe our air — every hour.

If you have never watched a video of late-term abortion, trust me:  Cain’s rock was a far more humane prototype.

The frantic push from transgender activism is rampantly breeding a generation that is targeted to yield the fewest offspring in the history of our country.  And while I genuinely love my friends who are gay, it’s not bigoted to point out that one of the obvious consequences of the LGBTQIA2+ community is a drastic reduction of Elohim’s unchanging desire for us:

Be fruitful and multiply

~Elohim, Genesis Chapter 1

Unimaginably, BLM Inc. proudly heralded on their website that one of their goals was to Disrupt the western nuclear family and promote more households without fathers.  Had they not heard the serpent hiss through Margaret Sanger decades earlier when she professed that Planned Parenthood held those same goals?  

As I’ve often written, our battle is not against one another.  The battle being waged is happening in unseen places.  The powers and rulers of darkness don’t have your best interest in mind. 

If you could only see into this invisible realm, you would perceive their initiatives have never changed: Steal, kill, and destroy the image-bearers created in the likeness of Elohim

The Bible goes on to describe an eternal story.  Far beyond just living and marrying and having kids on this earth, the grandest narrative of all speaks of a wedding celebration to put all others to shame.  

The Good Book starts with a wedding, and the Good Book ends with a wedding.

Jesus, also named the Lamb of God, has declared that he is the groom and we are the bride.  And when the wedding feast of eternity happens, there will be a circular dance of love so magnificent, it can never again be defiled by the angry accuser.  

Write this down, blessed are all who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.  These are the true words of God.

~Revelation, Chapter 19

So keep in mind, when you hear any talk that demeans or disparages the divine holiness of marriage or the procreation of children; listen closely for a hissing tongue or rattling tail.

Because the only foreknowledge the enemy has is this; he is not invited to the eternal dance.  

We are.  

(Photo Credit: Andrei Rublev’s Icon: The Holy Trinity, circa 1410. Notice the square on the front-facing of the table. Some art historians say the original had a mirror glued in that spot. Why? So you could see yourself included at the table of the Trinity.)