Consequences

Consequences follow the choices I make. Even when they are hard to accept, if I am attentive enough, I can find love in their shadows.

My prayer

When I make a mess of things, help me to integrate the new situation I’ve created in the healthiest way possible.

Biblical touchstones

They heard the sound of God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. But God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

To the woman God said, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

And to the man God said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you,‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.
Genesis 3:8-13

Invitation to prayer

First, bring your attention to your heart and feel the strength of love that resides there. Next, position your body, hands and head as you see God here. Be sure to imitate the wide openness of God’s right hand and the secure (not gripping) holding of the book with God’s left hand. Feel what this creates in you.

 

What prayers are emerging from your heart, mind, and body? Pray them now.

Photos
God, holding the book of knowledge (Truth) and addressing the disobedient serpent, man and woman in the Garden of Eden as depicted by thirteenth century sculptors. The second inner archivolt on the right side of the central bay of the North Porch at the Chartres Cathedral in France.

Related posts on the creation sculptures at the Chartres Cathedral

God, the Creator: God Holding the Book of Knowledge; God Creating the Garden of Eden; God Creating the Animals (Day 6 of Creation at Chartres); God Imagining Humanity (Day 5 of Creation at Chartres); Envisioning Creation; Deep Consideration, In the beginning, God created…; The God of Creation; Inspiration

The Creation of Humanity: The Creation of Eve; God Creates Humanity (Day 6 of Creation at Chartres); Adam, Safe and Securely Created (Day 6 of Creation at Chartres); God Loving Adam into Being (Day 6 of Creation at Chartres); Loved

Adam and Eve, Drama in the Garden of Eden: The Blame Game; Nowhere to Hide From God’s Searching Love, Alienation Hurts; Adam Chokes: The Feel of Alienation: Eve and the Serpent, The Heart of Naming: Adam in the Garden of Eden;  Adam at Home  in the Garden of Eden; Animal Connections (Day 6 of Creation at Chartres); The Fall of Humanity

The Creation of the Natural World:  Imagining Humanity and Creating the Bird and Fish (Day 5 of Creation at Chartres); The Sun and the Moon (Day 4 of Creation at Chartres); Vegetation (Day 3 of Creation at Chartres); Creation Plants and Trees; The Firmament; Night and Day; Heaven and Earth; Creation: Part 2

The Garden of Eden: Trouble in the Garden; The Rivers of Eden, The Animals, Fish, and Birds of the Garden of Eden; The Animals, Fish, and Birds of the Garden of Eden; The Garden of Eden; The Animals Created by God (Day 6 of Creation at Chartres)