I am loving this new Word Wednesday! Hope you are too. There is something about reading deliberately, reading to listen, that is completely different than simply reading, isn’t there? When you take it slow and you are open to a new Word, things happen. Now, to get those words from my head to my heart! How about you? Are you ready for Genesis 2?

Genesis 2:7 (GWT)–Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the earth and blew the breath of life into his nostrils.  The man became a living being.

The way I am reading the Bible this year ties Genesis 2 to a verse in John.  See if you see the connection.

John 1:3 (GWT)–Everything came into existence through him.  Not one thing that exists was made without him.

It literally made me hold my breath when I tied those two together, back to back.  Yes, I’ve read them before.  Yes, I know it.  But I had never put them side by side before and let the thought gel.  Jesus isn’t out there somewhere.  He’s not even right next to us.  He is, literally, a fundamental part of us.  He makes up our DNA.  His breath is personally in us.

It makes me think of CPR… or of a kiss.  To breathe the breath of life into someone, you have to be face-to-face, no space between.  It is intimate, personal, a close “invasion” of space in a world that likes to keep things at arms’ length.  God is God.  Jesus is God.  He didn’t have to breathe life into us.  He could have simply spoken it and made it so.

But he didn’t.  He chose the intimate and personal, the face-to-face and possessive.  The “you are mine and I’m not afraid to get close to you.”  Jesus isn’t worried about getting close to us.  He wants to be close to us.

Is it any wonder the world chases after all manner of things to fill the God-space?  He is our core building block, and if we deny Him, we lose our breath.  The world is gasping for air.

Now, what are we going to do about it?

-JB