Made for Adventure

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Sheridan Voisey and I've titled our reading today, Made for Adventure. I recently made a wonderful discovery. Following a dirt path into a cluster of trees near my home, I found a hidden homemade playground.

A ladder made of sticks led up to a lookout, swings made from old cable spools hung from branches, and there was even a suspension bridge slung between bows. Someone had turned some old wood and rope into a creative adventure. Swiss physician Paul Tournier believed that we were made for adventure because we're made in God's image. Just as God ventured forth to invent a universe, just as he took the risk of creating humans who could choose good or evil, and just as he called us to be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, we too have a drive to invent, take risks, and create new things as we fruitfully rule the earth. Such adventures may be large or small, but they're best when they benefit others. I bet the makers of that playground would get a kick out of people finding and enjoying it. Whether it's inventing new music, exploring new forms of evangelism, or rekindling a marriage that's grown distant, adventures of all kinds keep our heart beating.

What new task or project is tugging at you right now? Perhaps God is leading you to a new adventure. Today's scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 1, verses 21 to 28. So God created the great creatures of the sea, and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird, according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.

And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Let's pray together. Adventurous God, would you give us a brand new adventure to pursue today?

May it be stretching, taking us out of our comfort zones where we have to rely on you, your strength, your empowering, your opportunities, your open doors. May it be creative and helpful, bringing something beautiful into the world. May it be driven by love, bringing great benefit to others. Lord, would you give us a new adventure to pursue with you and for the sake of others? We ask it in Jesus' powerful and adventurous name. Amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Sheridan Voisey and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.