It is an easy thing to imagine God as critical, as judging, as a director of our ways ... the one who is always herding us about trying to get us to do what is right. Basically it is easy to imagine Him as always frustrated with us. But do you ever think of God as feeling pleased by what we independently hope and plan in our hearts?

I nearly missed out on the blessing of being reminded about God's joy in our creativity.

If I had been bluntly asked, "Do you think that we are created with free will ... completely free will?" I would have said, "Yes, absolutely." If I had been asked, "Do you think our free will makes us capable of devising wicked plans in our hearts ... without prompting from any evil source (ie Satan or friends without morals or etc)?" I would have said, "Yes, each of us is capable of creating sinful ideas without any additional help from another source -- spirit or flesh." And if I had been asked, "Do you think our free will makes us capable of creating plans for the good of others without any additional influence from another source (ie God or friends who also want good)?" Again, I would have said, "Yes. Absolutely."

I believe our free will gives us the ability to generate original evil and create original good. Independently. We do not require assistance -- although we seem to create in synergistic ways with assistance. Further, I believe it is our independent free will that gives us the ability to choose to invite God's spirit in to our lives or to hang out with Satan and his buds.

So how is it that since I believe I can create independent plans that can grieve God -- How is it that I would never consider that God could be happy with plans I create? Moreover, could plans I create inspire God to join in the creativity with His own ideas and inspirations?

When I read about David and the temple in Samuel, I thought something like, "Oh well. Too bad for David." I read that God was pleased. I read that God told David, "Great idea! You won't get to do it because you're a warrior. But, I'll let one of your sons do it. And as a bonus I'll establish your kingdom forever." I read that David was pleased with the deal.

But when I encountered the story again in Chronicles, I was blown away. When I started reading the encounter again, I saw David so in awe of God's good gifts. I did not see any disappointment. And in Chronicles I got to understand all of the prep work David did ... all the collections ... all the prefabricated parts that were being put together. David divided up the Levities into their appropriate assignments -- both present and future. And then David pulls together all the leaders that will still be in place when Solomon takes the thrown and he commits them to the project ... them AND their possessions / gifts.

And then David turns to Solomon and blesses him and hands over to him the plans for the temple.

9 "And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. 10 Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work."

11 Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement.

12 He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.

[ ... the list gets long and even includes the design of the forks and bowls ..]

18 and the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense. He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and shelter the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

19 "All this," David said, "I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan." I Chronicles 28

Ok this is just the most exciting thing to me. David came up with the idea. David got to go out and war and conquer and bring about peace AND he got to collect an amazing tonnage of gold, silver, bronze, precious stones ... etc etc etc ... AND he got to create the plans in his journals. When David sat down to write, God would reveal to him temple plans.

Alright this is very imaginative but I can just see David writing "Today I went out and conquered and those people had more bronze than I've seen in a long time ..." and God would whisper "Yeah and here's what can happen with that bronze." And David's eyes would light up and he'd write for maybe a few minutes or a few hours. Then he'd get out "The Temple Plan" book and carefully rewrite his notes.

As far as I'm concerned God let David do all the fun creative stuff a body could handle. Then poor Solomon had to carry out the plans -- I'm fairly sure he had some fun himself though. Ok, it's really pretty obvious Solomon still got to have some of the planning fun. But there's nothing like being the creator of the plan -- the one who first catches the vision.

But let me just repeat myself one more time ... Why does it Not routinely occur to me that God can get excited about my ideas and want to co-create?

So this brings me to a second blessing:

Have you ever read a classic novel or Shakespearean play and thought "Oh that was so much more enjoyable than when I was in school." Why is that? Simple. It's much more enjoyable because someone isn't making you stop and discuss every bit of it and skip over portions. No one is interrupting your thoughts. No one is making you record analogies and threads and analyze the book until the story is so disrupted and dissected as to be shredded and unenjoyable. And yet you know good and well that all of the training you received then helped you enjoy the book now.

That is exactly the way this adventure is turning out for me. Reading the Bible in large clumps is giving me such a feeling for the story. It gets exciting like all really great stories do.

A bit of disconcerting ...

The story is written by many people at different times. Reading each book of the Bible independently is like reading a collection of books from a time period. Parts are repeated and clarified in each book but sometimes it feels out of sync.

Sooo, you know ... without me actually voicing these thoughts ... my mother mailed to me the plan she is using to read the Bible over a year's time. And it's a chronological plan! I'd never even thought to look for one.

Sooo I started looking around online to find one like it that I could point you to and I found one at Back to the Bible (Yeah. Imagine that. They're still around -- and looking very modern. Oh but a hint: to actually move through the months you have to click the blue arrow beside the month.)

Anyway, it's kind of late to try to implement Back to the Bible's chronological reading plan for the Old Testament but I think I'll use it for the New Testament -- especially since it very tightly meshes the Gospels together.

I believe I should be through reading in June or July -- for the first read through. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

The Sleeping with Bread meme is propagated by Mary of Life, the Universe and Everything. It gives us a chance to stop and consider God's blessings and a chance to evaluate what is giving us pause or grief.