Certain Death

The gift of free will enables man to choose God.

God is God and as such possesses purview over all things. He has full rights to determine what is ultimately good and evil.

The first command at the Garden of Eden provided a graphic potential for sin. If the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was violated, it meant man's free exercise of autonomous declaration of self-authored morality. It takes away the irrevocable truth of God's sole prerogative.

The certainty of death flows from the audacity of such human arrogance.

Priestly Work

The untiring tricycle driver has equal dignity with any hard-working Chief Executive Officer.

Both have been granted an opportunity to recognize divine rest in the context of work.

When the model of pre-Fall labor is properly understood, we are infused with mysterious zest.

We begin looking forward to Mondays and thanking God for Fridays for all the good that is leveraged for His Glory.

photography: Renchi Arce / Streets of Manila

Flow

The imagery of river flowing from Central Eden breaking forth into four headwaters: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates, ushers the origin of blessing.

True favor comes from God's dwelling.

The spring of life is not fictitious.

Dip into any river and you'll perceive divine gravitas.

photography: Renchi Arce / Pulang Daga Paracale, Camarines Norte

Garden Life

The introduction of place requires assent to complete obedience.

In the Garden of Eden, provision and protection were coordinated by God's ordinance.

There were no multiple edicts.

Just the simple centrality of childlike loyalty.

photography: Paolo Esquivel

Breath

I came from dust.

I live from borrowed breath.

I die if it were not for God.

photography: Yen Baet / Krakow: Igor Mitoraj's Eros Bendato

Sacred Moments

The seventh day of creation provides an eternal perspective of holy.

In a world where time is ignored, assets accrue to rot.

In God's kingdom, moments lend their jewels to everything.

A sister's wedding remains forever.

Bianca Diwa with newlywed big-sister Nika

Theomorphic

God made man and woman to serve as His image bearers.

Eyes, ears, hands, feet, heart, mind ... were divinely crafted to express the presence of God.

On the sixth day of creation, the Imago Dei ushered a most wonderful mirror.

We can now behold a reflection of our Creator.

Soul Flight

The Fifth day of creation grants the waters and the sky the miracle of God's originating word.

The soul is a divine grant that infuses passion related to desires and appetites. Fish and Birds teemed with such.

When the Creator spoke blessing to both, they received the intentionality of their existence: to depend upon Him while serving through dive and flight.

photography: Yen Baet / Santa Monica Beach, Los Angeles

Governing Lights

The fourth day of creation ushered governing lumens.

Sun, Moon, and Stars were set.

What is incredible was the centrality of the Earth in God's architectural initiative.

He commissions resplendence towards our planet with a sense of deep knowing.

Ahh, I just remembered ...

A child was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. A bright light governed the search of the Magi.

The Son of God had to light the world.

photography: Paolo Esquivel / The Great Rift: Milky Way

Land & Seed

My house sits on a corner lot with a sprawl of land.

There are trees and various plants.

It is sobering to think that all dry ground was once subdued under water.

On the third day, the Creator spoke the fiat of boundary.

The seas and land were formed.

Seed and vegetation were born according to their specified kind.

Wise limits were set.

These parameters have not changed a bit within His infinite finesse.

photography: Yen Baet / Haleakala Crater: Maui

Space

The need for space is a fundamental necessity.

Immediately after bringing in light, the Creator introduced expanse.

The Hebrew reading indicates the graphic installation of the sky in between the waters below and the waters above. The only way to visualize the Day 2 creation account is to have the text tell us how it really was.

Water, Space, Water.

For the scripturally adept, we know where the former water eventually went. It poured down to earth in the great deluge, cradling Noah's ark.

What is of note however is the vault that was crafted in between the two waters.

The world I live in is overcrowded.

Without space, I will surely drown without help.

The sky reminds me of God's intentional grant of shalom amidst all present deluge.

photography: Yen Baet / Le Beauvoir: Normandy, France

Distinction

Goodness is inherent.

God is distinctly good.

From His wisdom, light was created to subdue darkness.

It is noteworthy to ruminate the first aspect of God's created world: He spoke light into existence.

Darkness was the prevailing context when this took place.

When the WORD came to our place of gloom, darkness could not comprehend Him.

His goodness defined what is distinctly good henceforth.

photography: Stella P. Sison / Mandalay, Myanmar

Hover

The biblical account of creation documents the hovering of God's Spirit over chaotic waters.

God superintends even through ancient darkness.

With the advent of Christ, the hovering was displaced by indwelling.

Every person who turns to faith in Him is led out of darkness by the Supreme Power within.

Thus, the Spirit-led person hovers over the present darkness with hope of gospel Son-rise.

photography: Corinne Blanco

Grip

Through the years, a deep desire has been granted to my oftentimes wayward heart:

Nothing more

Nothing less

But

God's Will

in my life.

Drop the Mic.

Mother of the Bride

During Nika's wedding, I kept glancing at her mother.

There was this resplendence that spoke volumes.

Beauty runs deep.

First Love

Divine audacity declares the origin of true love.

A few minutes before my daughter's wedding, I was invited into the Bride-to-be's regal dressing room. Her heart speech muted whatever trepidation I had about her new journey.

She gifted me with an elegant silver tie bar which inscribed the only reason why the wedding took place.

I loved you first.

Nika did not even realize that this was the exact biblical text on my wedding back in 1988.

Ahh, the love of Christ never changes!

Central Point

When all of a man's preoccupations are doing well except his marriage, he will come out into the world with a posture of weakness.

When all of a man's preoccupations are not doing well but his marriage flourishes, he will come out into the world with a posture of strength.

Sketch: David Talaguit / Model shown: Jose Talaguit & Linda Talaguit

Kiss

 יָדַע  (yada) is hebrew for sex.

It represents deep intimacy.

It is most pure in the blessing of marriage.

Father's Gift

In the Garden of Eden, the Father's grant was intuitively revealing.

There was no parent and a child.

There was man and a woman.

Thus, the gift of marriage.

Dance Steps

She was a stumbling toddler on her fist steps.

She is a gazelle on her wedding day.

I watched from the windows of dance the staggering virtuoso of Christ, her life choreographer.

Poetry Springs Wedding / Father-Daughter Dance