{"id":1308,"date":"2010-12-25T03:04:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-25T03:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/joyeux-noel-god-is-good-all-the-time.html"},"modified":"2010-12-25T03:04:10","modified_gmt":"2010-12-25T03:04:10","slug":"joyeux-noel-god-is-good-all-the-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/joyeux-noel-god-is-good-all-the-time.html","title":{"rendered":"Joyeux Noel!!! God is Good All the Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/pre>\n
\"turtle<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
MOTHER LOAD<\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
From the very beginning
\nThe burden was clear
\nSometimes bearable
\nSometimes severe<\/p>\n
Ate from the apple
\nShared it with him
\nDisobeyed the order
\nIndulged the whim.<\/p>\n
What was the outcome?
\nThe fruit of the act?
\nShe ‘knew’ good and evil?
\nShe experienced it in fact?<\/p>\n
Did the earth creature join her?
\nDid he crumble into dust?
\nDid he die in an instant?
\nOr just tumble into lust?<\/p>\n
To love and to cherish
\nBecomes ‘desire and dominate’
\nObjectify the ‘other’
\nSo you can subjugate.<\/p>\n
Suddenly self conscious
\nInstantly aware
\nThere are no coverings
\nOnly nakedness there.<\/p>\n
Hiding in the garden,
\nThe creature in shame
\nRunning from her Maker
\nLike some kind of game.<\/p>\n
Passing the blame on
\nFrom God to the wife,
\nFrom the wife to the snake
\n‘The’ creator of strife.<\/p>\n
Banished from the garden,
\nBut clothed by their God
\nNot allowed to live forever
\nFind a living from the sod<\/p>\n
Pain in her labor
\nShortness of breath
\nThe mother of all living
\nGives birth near to death<\/p>\n
And would she be able
\nTo raise Cain at all?
\nOr will her next offspring
\nBe first to fall?<\/p>\n
And how to redeem this?
\nSet the process in reverse
\nPut a stop to the death toll
\nUndoing the curse?<\/p>\n
II<\/p>\n
From the very beginning
\nThe burden was clear
\n“Be it unto me as you said,
\nThe Lord’s servant is here.”<\/p>\n
A virginal conception
\nHad a child without a man
\nWhich no one expected
\nAnd few would understand.<\/p>\n
She received a word of warning
\nA sword would pierce her soul
\nBut the death of her first born
\nWould make the race whole.<\/p>\n
There beneath a crooked tree
\nStood that woman and a man
\nNeither disobeyed the orders
\nEach accepting the plan.<\/p>\n
Then He rose in the garden
\nReopened its gate
\nTo the tree for the living
\nTo the Adam without mate.<\/p>\n
And there in the Scriptures
\nWas a promise true and sure
\n“She’ll be saved through the childbearing”
\nThat Mary did endure.<\/p>\n
The story revisited
\nThe human tale revised
\nMotherlode now delivered
\nCurse reversed before our eyes.<\/p>\n
\nBW3 Dec. 20th 2005<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOTHER LOAD   From the very beginning The burden was clear Sometimes bearable Sometimes severe Ate from the apple Shared it with him Disobeyed the order Indulged the whim. What was the outcome? The fruit of the act? She ‘knew’ good and evil? She experienced it in fact? Did the earth creature join her? Did…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nJoyeux Noel!!!  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He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}