Tuesday, 24 November 2020

Mutual Blessing

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Genesis 1 presents the six days (cosmic days in my view - see Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God), and as the days progress we see an expansion of wonderful variety and beauty. God blesses each day and declares the creation good. He is blessed by it. God, by his own choice, makes himself partake of interdependence for mutual blessing. God and nature are in a relationship of mutual blessing. The seventh-day rest is best understood as the day that the great Artist steps back from what He has done to enjoy it!

Human beings and nature are in a relationship of mutual blessing. That human beings are to care for the garden shows that the garden will bring blessing and, in turn, human beings bring a greater quality of fruitfulness and beauty to the garden. The plants and animals are dependent on one another for mutual blessing. The bees pollinate the fruit flowers and provide the bees with their food. The fruit trees provide fruit for animals and human beings. Human beings care for and bless the trees. Science tells us that the very position of the galaxies are exactly tuned to provide for life on earth. The beauty of nature blesses humankind. Humankind is charged to be a good steward of nature, which is implied by ruling as a vice-regent of God, the meaning of being in the image of God.

In human life itself, there are arrangements of mutual blessing that astonish us when we think about them: the artist and his patrons and those who enjoy his art - all are enriched; the entrepreneur who cares about his employees enriches them, and they him in return; the inventor blesses with his invention and is enriched by the benefit it brings along with the income; the manufacturer produces a product to enhance the lives of those who purchase the product - he and the employees are enriched in return; the teacher and student are mutually enriched; parents and their children are in mutual relationship of interdependence for mutual blessing - these are awesome relationships.

However, the greatest of all mutual blessing of all is the human relationship with God. God finds fulfillment somehow in our love and relationship with him. We find our fulfillment in God's love and relationship with us. He is the one who makes all the distinctions in creation for mutual blessing.

The eternal state, everlasting life, is an enhancement and perfection of these aspects so that we can enjoy God and one another along with nature, art, and beauty as it will be in that age forever.

This excerpt was taken from my article.