To Put It Another Way

To Put It Another Way…
Genesis 2: 4b-7

There is a children’s story about Pinocchio, a wooden doll carved from a piece of pine who longs to become a real boy. After a series of adventures that come to a climax with his making a great sacrifice, this eventually happens, and everyone lives happily ever after. It is a typically moralistic children’s tale, and it is thus typically undermined by the Old Testament. Here the first human being is molded by God from dirt, but it is purely God’s generosity that makes God turn the puppet into a living human being; the challenge to live the right kind of life follows on that, and everyone does not live happily ever after...