Reflecting

Genesis 5:3

Reflecting is the ability to look back and think deeply on the events that has or has not happened, because of our freedom to choose.  April 10, of this year my wife found me in total denial, her words to me were, “do the math” and the math said I was Sixty-seven.  So I began to reflect back on sixty-seven years of living and my many choices, some good, a few were life changing, and many that were poor, and a few that were disastrous.  Marrying Jan was one of those life changing choices, she has become my best friend, and God has used her to shape me, but the best and most life changing was the decision I made at the age of 27 in a hotel room when I ask Jesus Christ to forgive me and I entered into Christ.  As I reflect back on poor choices, one that always comes to mind is having only one child, that was an act of our will, and because of that choice, we will never understand the joy that Adam had when he saw his son Seth.

In Genesis 5:3 we have this account; “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”  This made the wheels begin to turn in my brain and I went back to reread the Scriptures on Adam.  The Bible does not state the age that Adam was when God designed him, but many believe that’s because God called him a man, and that Adam was around thirty when God created him.  We do not know how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden before they made the choice to rebel against God and only after that did they have Cain and Abel. It is also very clear that all that happened before Seth showed up on planet earth, and it happened before Adam was 130 years of age.  This is still not clear in my mind, did God begin numbering Adam’s days by his created age or by his time on earth?  My guess is his time on earth.

I never had the joy of having a son; I can only image the feeling that goes through a man’s heart when he looks at his son.   As that son grows, to see your own likeness, one that God has created to look like your image.  As a dad of the most wonderful little girl that God has ever made, I can tell you the joy of watching her turn from my baby girl into a godly lady and mother of my two grandsons and praise God she did not take my likeness.  

Many of us like the rest of the story; often God has chosen not to reveal that to us, but often I think about heaven, and I will have eternity to hear the rest of the story.  One thing the rest of the story tells us is that all of them died but Enoch, and this information we have; “The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.  Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.  When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh.  Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters.  Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice