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  • GO and TURN in Genesis

    The words “go” and “turn” in Genesis speak to hope. They are both indicators that something is going to happen that couldn’t have happened if there was no going or someone did not turn. Fantastically, they also indicate someone with hope enough in the world to risk.

    Photo of a small sail boat made out of shells that reflect the action of going in Genesis.

    To go

    Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” Genesis 4:8

    There is a lot of going in the Bible and for humans this begins when Cain invites his brother to take a walk. We know that this walk out into the field ends with the first murder. The first murderer and the first person slain.

    This “going” as Meriam-Webster defines “to move on a course,” is not a ambling ramble but has a beginning place and an end place in the Bible, as in life. The going has intention for the person or god inviting, and the person setting out.

    So there is intention. There is also a disturbance, a movement, an energy, a change, a risk.

    It is not by accident that the frequent and earliest words in the Bible are verbs. To fully engage in the world you must act, in this case by going so as to meet each other. And our true selves. And that ultimate reality that lies beyond our full reach. If your hope is shaky starting out, it can only get stronger as you risk going forward.

    But as the first Hebrew story of going tells us, there are risks, so do not take it lightly. It could end in death as it did for Abel.

    View of a group of stone sculptures that reflect the action of turning in Genesis.
    Harborside Fountain Park, Bremerton WA

    To turn

    The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. He said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way.” Genesis 19:1-2

    As with Cain and Abel, we know what happened to the city of Sodom. Sodom and Gomorrah. Total destruction except for Lot, his wife and two daughters.

    But before that well known outcome, the story begins with two angels who at Lot’s bidding “turn aside” from their going and enter Lot’s house, thereby saving Lot and his family from death.

    To turn is an incredibly potent action in the Bible, both in the Hebrew and New Testament. What is destined to happen, because of the direction the person or people are going, is disrupted and now there are new possibilities for life. In the case of Lot and the two angels, the angels turn aside from their intended course and Lot and his daughters turn away from Sodom, thereby opening up the possibility of life.

    Going and turning beyond Genesis

    Genesis has lots of coming and turning, but what about the New Testament?

    I once started a list of all the references to Jesus’ movements. But I quickly decided it was enough to know it was a lot.

    It is easy to think of these comings and goings only as the way to reach more people with the new message. But after seeing in the Hebrew Bible that when someone went out or changed course, something big happened, it seemed wise to look deeper into the purpose in Jesus’ movements. What part did hope play in these decisions to go or turn aside?

    Looking closer at these movements of Jesus, his disciples and first Christians could make for an interesting conversation. Maybe as you go on that long car trip. Just download a Bible concordance first.

    Read other blog posts on the action words of the Bible

  • GIVE and HEAL in Genesis

    To give and to heal in Genesis is about love. Genesis introduces us to a Creator who gives extravagantly and heals generously. Something that humanity can find difficult to do. When we take a deep dive into the origin stories of the power of gifts and healing, confidence can return.

    Photo of a long table outside, laden with a profusion of flowers and green, fruit and cheeses, all kissed by the sun. To give as told in Genesis.
    Solstice gathering in Lake Forest Park, WA

    To give

    God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. Genesis 1:29-30

    The first chapter of the first book of the Hebrew Bible. Thirty-two times does God act with creation. God creates, makes, blesses, sees and speaks. But their last act before seeing that everything was very good was to give.

    God gave to everything with breath food to eat. Green plants, promising no breath is lost to feed another. There is no death in the beginning.

    Photo of an indoor plant that is withering and close, if not dead to represent the opposite of healing as told in Genesis.

    To heal

    Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. Genesis 20:17-18

    Abimelech is King Abimelech of Gerar where Abraham and the Hebrew people were aliens. And it is to this king, and not a Hebrew, that the earliest stories of the Hebrews first use the word heal.

    The image we have of the God of the Hebrew Bible is one of vengence but here we see the breadth of healing that is possible.

    Give and heal beyond Genesis

    In the Creation story of Genesis there is no speaking of love. Instead God makes and gives to creation. As humans move out of the garden, expressions of love are made. Love between people and a love for God.

    Might it be something to note that for the first Creator, it is the acts of loving in giving and healing, rather than the naming, that was told?

    Read other blog posts on the action words of the Bible

  • Looking deeper at America

    It is time to be looking deeper at America. Deeper not in the sense of more analyzing or theorizing or debating. But deeper in the sense of looking closely at what we are doing without looking away from what we see. Because the earth is shaking under us.

    • Looking from a ferry at container cranes in Port of Seattle WA set against dramatic clouds in United States
      Seattle WA
    • Looking from train at arid hills in foreground with Columbia River glimpsed beyond.
      Quincy WA
    • Looking from a train at an arid landscape with rolling hills with row of trees in the distant crest.
      Culbertson MT
    • Looking from a train at an intersection in a small town in an arid flat country.
      Glasgow MT
    • Looking from a train with a mobile home and scattered discarded objects in arid landscape and snow covered mountains in background.
      Browning MT
    • Looking from train at a winding river set below large stratified cliffs.
      Cut Bank MT
    • Looking at a landscape of flat golden grasses with a lone black bull silhouetted against a background of rolling hills.
      Willeston ND
    • Looking at a landscape of a harvested field scattered with round hay bales.
      Towner ND
    • Looking from a train at graffiti on golden brick retaining wall.
      St Paul, MN
    • Looking from a train at footprints on snowy sidewalk along a residential street with two-story traditional homes.
      Winona MN
    • Looking from a train at a tug boat on water.
      Red Wing MN
    • Looking at snow-covered cultivated field with silo and woods in background.
      Bangor WI
    • Looking from a train at snowy rural scene with horses in foreground among bare trees with wooden structures and low hills beyond.
      Sparta WI
    • Looking from a train at a flat green field with stone piles and grain elevator in background.
      Milwaukee WI
    • Looking at a train station framed by railcar window.
      Erie PA
    • Looking from a train at a blurred image of train crossing lights on rural country road.
      Harborcreek PA
    • Looking from a train at a lumber yard with stacks of building lumber with trucks and equipment in background.
      Whitesboro NY
    • Looking from a train at deciduous tree forest with band of evergreen trees in midground.
      Fonda NY
    • Looking from a bus at a working waterfront with several buildings and cranes seen in background.
      Bath ME

    Traveling from coast to coast, looking through ferry, train and bus windows at America, my first thought was wow, so this is America. There was a sense of self-satisfaction. Hey, all you guys up in planes, I’ve seen it and you haven’t. But this is school yard talk.

    America too could experience what history tells us is inevitable when a people don’t heed a trembling of the table at which we all sit. When a people shrink that table to family size, or country size, like-minded size or look-a-like size. When a people don’t see deeply into the reality that there is only one table and by giving weightlessness to some at the table, the table becomes unstable and begins to shake.

    Without our seeing the signs, gone is the sanctity and certainty of grass growing, birds singing, people living. Visions cease and violence begins. However, there is nothing head scratching about this. It is simply the logical result of not looking deeply, or seeing and turning away from what we are doing to each other. Nonetheless, we have plenty of company in the history of humanity. We can travel back to one of the first stories told of a people for whom the earth began to shake.

    Looking deeper in 800 BCE

    This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”

    Amos 8:1-2

    Amos was a shepherd and dresser of Sycamore trees around 800 BCE. Then God saw fit to show him how to look deeper and see that his world was headed towards violence.

    God said, “Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.” So says the Lord God, “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place.”

    God looks deeper at that basket of fruit and sees violence ahead. Was it that it was summer fruit, eaten today and gone tomorrow with no vision of what there would be to eat in the winter? Or simply that the season of plenty was over because not all shared in that plenty. The Hebrew Bible doesn’t say but the book of Amos does offer insight on what is needed for looking deeper at America.

    Finding America’s basket of summer fruit

    Here is some of what the book of Amos offers those of us wanting to see deeper into the reality of America.

    • Become who you are meant to be. Amos was a shepherd. A person accounted no weight until he chose to listen, see and speak out. “…the land is not able to bear all his [Amos’] words.”
    • Be visceral. Talk blood and gore because that is the reality when a people see the trampling of the poor and look away. “…your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword.”
    • Hope always. Look so deeply that you can see good creation fermenting within the violence. “…they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.”

    Looking deeper into the news

    As we look at images from across America and attempt at looking deeper, here are images showing before and after air strikes in 2014 in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, with buildings reflecting a 2,000 year settlement that look like security itself. In reality, looking secure can not save a city when security is not shared by everyone.

    The May 26, 2025 article in The Guardian, ‘Nothing left to bomb’ by Ruth Michaelson and Hashed Mozqer reflects on the loss of sanctity and certainty in Sana’a as new airstrikes continue to destroy lives and the life of this city. In response, Mohamed Althaibani, a naturalized US citizen living in Sana’a, can only lament,”Many people have died – and for what? There is nothing to strike here, except people trying to live, looking for food.”

    Whatever work is needed for looking deeper at America, the book of Amos is clear that we humans have trouble seeing what we don’t want to see. Decidedly, this is a theme throughout the history of humanity, recorded many times in the Bible, and lamented by those who see deeper.

    The earth is shaking. Will we look deeply at America’s basket of summer fruit and meet the gaze of all around the table?

    Read other blog posts on the action words of the Bible

  • Life is precious

    A colorful ceramic mold of a face decorated with vibrant circular patterns, topped with metal spirals and colorful discs.
    aha! moment by Rick Holst

    One extravagant life

    Each life is precious. Each unique among the hundred million babies born worldwide each year. Who doesn’t on seeing a newborn reaching deep for their first breath not also reach deeply with them into the generosity of life. At first there are no words. Only exclamations and tears. And how appropriate that those attending the birth have no words for their wonder and joy, as the baby as yet has no words to protest or rejoice.

    Trailing the first sounds of new life, the first words come. And aren’t they instinctively words of thanks? Because new life seems to need darkness, hiddenness, uncertainty and risk. Which is why we know to raise our thanks as high as we are capable of imagining. Science, after all, tells us that this new life is made up of dust from the beginning of the cosmos.

    However, the act of creation has one last task if it is to survive. And it falls to humanity to do. Before there was nothing and now there is something. Something that needs to be placed. Something that needs a name. As none of us is able to know our own creation, others must first speak it for us in stories to be shared. For if we don’t speak of our shared beginnings, the web of life breaks and violence comes.

    “Let my life be precious in your sight”

    There is a story in the Hebrew Bible in the first chapter of Second Kings. In this story, 102 soldiers have died until one captain with his 50 solders comes forward and speaks to the prophet Elijah. “Please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.”

    Here we have a story about the good that comes from speaking out of the value of each life. This captain speaks to the prophet Elijah of the sacredness of life. Life is precious. Elijah himself is under a death threat from the king who sent the soldiers to bring him back to carry out his execution. By speaking out on the preciousness of his life and his soldiers’ lives, the captain’s voice reverberates in creation so that God hears and speaks to Elijah. “Do not be afraid to go with this captain to the king. No harm will come.” And with that speaking out, violence ends. At least for the good guys.

    Creation stories of precious life

    “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The beginning of a story of the birth of the cosmos in ten words, spoken in a few seconds. Likewise the Big Bang Theory puts the beginning of the cosmos from nothing to something in under a second.

    Some say science replaces creation stories. Some say no. While some say they live side by side. Maybe even intersect. Each of us has to decide for ourselves but here are some reasons why stories, including creation stories, will always be told.

    • Story tellers are deep observers of life, giving the rest of us a glimpse of the powerful forces behind our visible world.
    • Stories demand our creativity and engagement. We can’t just show up with facts to pit against other facts.
    • Truth is incredibly difficult to see from one view but stories have 360 degree vision and telephoto lenses.
    • Stories are memorable. They build community through their telling not because they are simple, but because the questions they raise are more important than answers.
    • Because stories are open and big and able to include so many.

    We will always create stories that speak of our shared beginnings. It is not something the Bible demands, it is something the Bible tells us was there in the beginning. For good reason.

    News on creation

    The Big Bang. Dark Matter. Deep Space. Dark Energy, Black Holes. Science holds many mysteries in its exploration of the skies, the place where precious life began.

    DESI, short for Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, is mapping 1 million galaxies,(yes, that’s right, galaxies). The project is looking to understand how the cosmos works through a better understanding of Dark Matter. But the big news is that DESI’s data is “dropping hints” of something new: Dark Energy may vacillate. Previously, it had been thought that Dark Energy only expanded, sending creation to oblivion. Though now, maybe not.

    Check out this mind blowing video. Each dot is a universe!?

    Genesis chapter one in the Hebrew Bible speaks seven times of the good of creation. There is nothing in creation that is called bad. Even the creation of sea monsters God saw as good. All of life begins as precious and it is our responsibility to continue to tell that story.

    Book suggestions

    Consider these books to explore deeper.

    Read other blog posts on the action words of the Bible

  • Vignettes as self expression for all ages

    Sexuality is not the only thing hidden in closets. Having just celebrated Gay Pride, it is fitting we acknowledge that hiding who we really are just isn’t right for anyone. You may not be hiding something as fundamental as your sexuality but then you really don’t know until you begin to show who you are and what you love. Vignettes are a great way to discover yourself and openly share with others.

    Vignettes as self expression.

    At the design workshop I held the end of April, we started with vignettes as a way to begin to see our homes as a place where we can express ourselves. Vignettes are small and easily arranged using objects hidden away in the closet. But you must use objects you love, maybe because of the memories they hold or the way they look or maybe they are objects that bring a smile to your face because of their whimsy or silliness or inappropriateness.

    Involve the kids in creating vignettes.

    One of the attendees of the workshop just wasn’t really getting into the spirit. But then she enlightened us, “I’ve got small kids. It wouldn’t last two seconds in my house.” So here are some thoughts for including children in creating vignettes.

    Think interactive.

    I love the Minion movies and picked up a few toy Minions at my local Goodwill. My whimsical self alongside books on spirituality. Guests always notice. Little guests don’t come frequently to my home but last week I had such a visitor and he immediately spied the Minions, picked one up and put it down in a different place. So fantastic! Children have such confidence in their own creativity.

    Think stories.

    We are always asking kids to put their objects, what we call toys, away where they can’t be seen. Sometimes that means taking apart a scene important for a story they have imagined. A tableaux. Which according to Mirriam-Webster is a shortening of tableau vivant which translates to “living picture.” Instead encourage a child to save or build a vignette with a few toys so that they can share it with others or later pick up where they left off.

    Think love.

    Why have we come to think of the love of objects as bad? Children see objects and relate directly to them. So consider after a vacation having a space on the bookshelf or mantle for a vignette where each of you can contribute a favorite memento from the trip. Then take turns arranging the objects, taking photos, and talking about what makes each arrangement work. Help children retain that love of the beauty and the aliveness of objects. Like most interactions with children, we give much and receive much. So tap into their confidence and love of objects.

    Create beautiful vignettes.

    What have you got in your closets that you can boldly share? Whether you live alone, with friends, a partner, or kids, encourage individuality and self expression. And never forget beauty. Here are a few tips for creating vignettes that will draw the eye and nourish the soul.

    • Use odd numbers of objects.
    • Group objects like they are in conversation, never too far away from each other.
    • Vary height, including using vertical and horizontal surfaces in a single vignette.
    • Stand back and squint so you can see the essentials of the design.
    • Don’t overthink. Play instead.