About a week ago, from a post in the bulletin, the question was asked how does Genesis 1:20 relate to our mood and the changes in mood? The verse reads; And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

If we are to summarize this verse, the word which comes to mind is the word “creating.” An action taking to bring about something that was previously missing. Creation was for mankind. For in God the creator, He is the all sufficient One, El Shaddai. However, mankind is not all sufficient like God. Observe, even in the beginning, in a perfect world as it was in Eden, yet the man and woman still weren’t all sufficient.

They needed the love and the creating power of God to meet their every needs. Though the man and the woman could have been content with the waters of Eden and the air above them, yet it would have been void of life.

Likewise, even now for us who are sons and daughters of God, but our waters at times are without life and our air at times is without any movement. Nevertheless, the lack of a substance or a thing in your life can be the opportunity for something new.

As it was in Eden, though the water was present, but not a life was found in it. So, God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. For the man and the woman, the Lord created these things. The word “life” used here in the verse is the Hebrew word, nephesh, which implies soul. Furthermore, it is the feelings, passions, and the desire for living things.

Though long gone are the days of Eden, but the impact is still all around us. Yet, it remains unseen by many, for the temporary god of this world, the devil has through the process of time blinded the minds and the eyes of mankind not to see the life that is around them. The more the modern world advances in the breakthrough of technological accommodations, further removed is the “nephesh” the soul of man from the essence of life.

For many, the clouds that were once filled with fowls, are barely seen. So, the modern man must stay busy to live. Instead, to be at peace and live. Consequently, the mood within mankind is searching for an anchor of life, but mankind is working, and amongst the mimicking of life called technology, useful but without the soul of which we have within us.

Now, the soul within is silently weeping out for another soul. We despise not the ease of life. But let us not forsake the lives all around us. We all have been blinded, but as Christ so long ago, open the physical eyes of the blinds, may we look to Him from within that He may restore our eyes for discernment that we will see His creation around us.

Take time to say thank you Lord, then look around you, the heavens and its movement, the animals that are in the wild, and those that are yours. They were created for you. Learn to see them and appreciate them, for in them is life, and your soul needs such life, and moreover, your fellow man, see and appreciate others through the lens of God the Creator, your heavenly Father.

Ironically, since at the end of the year 2022, and now it is the year 2023, I have been painting many paintings on the beauty and the simplicity of the beauty of God’s creation. Perhaps, within me was the nephesh crying out for the need and the appreciation of God’s wonderful and beautiful creation.

Little did I know, these will be words expressed by me months after the many beautiful paintings of life and the beauty of life. Now, to you it is incumbent upon you to see and appreciate life around you, this day and the days that are to come.