The Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life.
Genesis 2:7
Here’s the story of the creation of Adam, the very first man. It’s just beautiful the way that God took some mud and made a nose out of it, then breathed into the nose and Adam came to life. Breath from God flows into a human being. God takes what is basic to God—breath—and gives this to human beings.
It’s like the very first sense is the sense of smell. Like a magic carpet, smells send us back to the past in an instant. For me, the smell of the salt air by the ocean brings me back to being a child at the shore with such happy memories.
Spend time today breathing and being aware of how things smell. Give thanks to God for your nose that lets in the air you breathe and makes you very much like God—breathing and living. Look what happens in the rest of the reading when people forget about God and only think of themselves.
Examples of Bible Breaths Learn More…
You breathing the breath of life 2:7
Discerning good from evil 3:1ff
We are dust; to dust return 3:19
I am by brother’s keeper. 4:9
Check out Study Tools in BibleGateway.
I especially recommend the free resource
in Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
The Saturday passages follow the reading list that Jewish people use in their synagogue worship throughout the world. They are taken from
“The Torah,” the first five books of the Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy that are read each year beginning with autumn.
These Firestarters are for families with children. For the Firestarters in the original edition, I recommend the ebook. You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or table! Check the menu options at the site for more information.
The Bible Through the Seasons 