Population grows & plot thickens
The Bible reading for this weekend is Genesis 4-7 & Genesis 8-11.
Decluttering…is wonderful!! 
Your description of the girls’ room reminds me of one of Karil’s favored lines of A&E Pride & Prejudice, “Shelves in the closet. Happy thought indeed!” In my own ways as a singleton, I’ve been hard @ work to strip out the unnecessary nouns in my home [roommate exempt 
], w/ a particular focus to get as paperless as possible. And, as you said, the dimness to this world & the brilliance of Christ’s sufficiency daily is such an extraordinary gift. It’s so freeing to be liberated from our clutch on things & it makes evaluating what to keep, what to scan, what to trash pretty simple. I think about Mark & Ruthi Brucato or Victor Kuligan & his family & the measures they take to pack up life into a pallet & venture off to Italy, to the southern tip of Africa, to live life in pursuit of souls for God’s kingdom. I’m challenged to take a like-minded approach to life & the missions we’re engaged in locally.
Today & tomorrow’s reading cap off the 1st of 2 main sections of Genesis (1-11; 12-50). We begin to get a glimpse of God’s character & what pleases him as we watch Cain & Abel approach him w/ offerings & deal w/ His response (love ch 4:7), we see the line restart w/ Seth, we witness the LORD’s grief over the greatness of man’s wickedness (ch 6:6=heartbreaking), we look on as flood waters rise & fall, we see words & concepts of “covenant” & “alter” make their debut, the sky & our eyes welcome the rainbow while our hearts cling to God’s Noahic covenant, “an unconditional divine promise never to destroy all earthly life with some natural catastrophe”, and our jaws drop when we see the explosion of languages commence @ the Tower of Babel. It’s a busy time in the beginnings of the world & Monday will begin our opportunity to learn from Job’s life. It’s been good for me to be reminded, as Emily wrote, of what is true, what is most important. I hope your time in God’s word has been encouraging to you as well. Thanks Emily & Happy New Year all!
