What Are We To Do With Ourselves?

 

What Are We To Do With Ourselves?

^{Genesis 5:3 “}And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:”

^{Psalm 119: 13} “You are the one who put me together inside my mother's body, ¹⁴ and I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me.  Everything you do is marvelous!  Of this I have no doubt.”  (ESV)

     Mom and Dad, you have quite the work set out before you.  Your little one isn’t perfect.  Before leaving the hospital, it is mandatory your baby defecate.  Perhaps this should be the first clue.  This is the beginning of influences it will have.

     Our we created in God’s image?  Not entirely.  Like begets like.  Adam’s kids took his resemblance.  Yes, we are not animals.  But thanks to Adam, we are not far from our furry friends.  Brutality in murdering our own species, we know.  If not for guilt and self-awareness, we’d be chewing off each other’s heads like cheetahs gnawing on a recent catch of gazelle.  What a pretty picture!

     Each child requires extreme counseling.  Destined to become a productive member of society who pays taxes and supports our democratic republic, the calling is extensive.  Families generate. Schools and churches help shape.  Community and government further refine in keeping the individual on the straight and narrow.  Out of the box, the child is expected to gain and improve showing progression along these lines.  It takes a tribe to raise a child?  Well, today it might take a psychologist calling the psychiatrist when problems arise.

     I grew up with the term transvestite on my tongue.  It shared its space with mentally retarded and queer.  Gay and fag we called each other on the playground.  Not wanted to be branded by either of these labels, we fought hard to declare our identity away from these.  There were no support groups or self-affirmation classes determined to assimilate quirky behaviors into mainstream acceptability.  Kids with other tendencies were just weird and avoided.

     I was knit together in my mother’s womb.  God takes responsibility for that.  He also took the wild yarn as the third strand.  Like combining wool with cotton, a rough thread ran through an otherwise soft composure.  He calls it sin.  It effects the whole.

     If we are body, soul, and spirit, doesn’t it make sense all three would be under impression at conception?  We have seen birth defects.  Missing an arm, cleft lip, etc.  These are obvious.  Soul anomalies later show as the child expresses feelings ungoverned by self-control.  Spirit shards scrape as the mirror tells of Johnny’s brokenness.  Like a baseball thrown into his image, he reflects incoherence and incongruities typical of a sin affected one.  Confusion lies within the child, and it is the responsibility of others to clarify him.

     Sexual identity and gender preference are no new thing.  All must be counseled.  Coming out of the womb, we must be calibrated.  Not pigeon-holed.  Every individual is unique.  God has given potential in crafting a being.  We are to take over in cooperating with His Spirit.  “And what is the bent of this child?”  We are to identify and develop not according to norms, but according to His plan.