Christian Living

Still Turning Right

by Mary Elder-Criss 
03/02/23
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Still Turning Right

"I'm still turning right, babe." My son-in-law, Isaac, now with Jesus, spoke these words often to reassure my daughter that he was still on the right track. Whenever he felt discouraged in his walk with God, or just with life in general, he would remind himself and her that he was still trying.

If we look at the total degree of a circle, we realize it is 360֯. To turn means to move something so that it is facing in a different or opposite direction. If he turned to sin or did a 180, he would immediately make an about-face and return to the originally intended direction, i.e. back to God. 

When God created the world, he made it and us as His perfection, and we are His Masterpiece. If we were to look at the Greek form of the word workmanship, “εργασία“ or “poeima,’ it gives us our English words Poem and Poetry. So when God created man, He was writing a poem. We were the final touches on the masterpiece of earth that He felt needed to be put in place for His world to be complete. We were created, therefore, to be the very reflection of God Himself.

But God also created us with free will, and because of this free will, He allowed man to make his own decisions. As such, Eve listened to the serpent, and Adam paid attention to Eve, and instead of simply meeting God in the garden and confessing their sins, they hid from Him.

When God called out to them and saw they had attempted to cover their bodies with leaves to hide their shameful nature, He knew both had listened to the deceitful one, who told them that if they indeed ate from the tree of Good and Evil they would be as powerful as God. Instead of confessing their sins, they covered their bodies because both knew they were naked, afraid, and had failed their Creator. Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed Eve, which was the beginning of the "Blame Game" that is still very much in effect today. We are a generation of vipers who are prone to look for someone else to take responsibility for our wrong choices. This way, we do not have to be held accountable for our mistakes. They were lied to, but because they chose the option they did, sin came into the world and has been here ever since.

To execute a complete circle, we turn 360 degrees. So if Isaac was still turning right, doesn't that eventually mean he would make a complete circle right back to where he started? To turn away from it or go left instead of right, we make a 180-degree turn away from where we have been. However, that means we are moving in the opposite direction from what God created because when He set us in the garden and formed us in His image, we were to reflect Him. Adam and Eve listened to the serpent and turned 180 degrees away from God instead of turning to the right and following Him as He intended.

As a result of their sin, God cast them from the garden and made them toil and labor on earth to have the freely given gifts He had already bestowed. Adam would now have to earn what God had provided from the ground with the sweat of his brow, and Eve would bring forth children in pain and intense suffering. As a direct result of the original sin, Adam, Eve, and the serpent were all cursed in one way or another. However, despite God's judgment of painful and difficult childbearing, God gave His blessing to Adam and Eve in the form of children. Even in God’s judgment, there is mercy. A further gift, even in the pain of childbirth, is found in the condemnation of the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers: he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Genesis 3:15)

This is a messianic prophecy, but it also contains an immediate focus: Eve will have children who will be in conflict with the serpent (Satan). This conflict between Satan and humanity has been ongoing ever since, and it began with Adam and Eve and their offspring (Genesis 4) 

Still turning right was the catalyst that Isaac used to remind himself that he was still on the right track; he was still attempting to follow Jesus in everything he did and was working on completing that circle back to the beginning of what God intended.

If you have turned away from God, you are turning left; and you are moving in a direction that leaves all His wants and desires for your life in the dust.

From dust, we are created; to dust, we shall return, but in the meantime, we are to labor for His ministry here in this world until the glorious reappearing of Jesus and the new earth that He will set up for eternity. Examine your life daily, see if you are still turning in the right direction, listen to God's instructions, and obey. God first wants your heart, and then He wants your obedience. If Adam and Eve had observed God's directions, perhaps God would not have needed to send His son to die for our sins as a sacrifice for our wrong turns.

Thanks be to God that He did give us the greatest gift in this manner, that we have a way back to the Father through His son Jesus and His obedience to what His Father asked. (2 Corinthians 15.)

However, I still can't help but wonder and feel convinced that if Adam and Eve had sought God and confessed their sins, He would have been just to forgive them. There then would have been no need for Christ to die for our transgressions.

Today, if you have strayed from the path that God has set before you and have turned away, there is still hope. Heed His calling, make an about-face, and execute a 360-degree turn back to what He originally intended, His poetry.  

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

© Mary Elder Criss

March 2023