I’m pretty sure it’s a first — the first time I’ve colored this phrase with this color.

Continuing to read in Genesis and working my way through Adam’s descendants (okay, honestly, I’m skimming my way through the genealogy). And I pull out my yellow-colored pencil anticipating the highlighting of Enoch, because I know his genealogical entry will be a little different than the others — close, but not quite fitting the pattern.

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

(Genesis 5:21-24 ESV)

It’s that last sentence, verse 24, that I have for years highlighted in yellow. Yellow’s not attached to any particular theme or topic, it’s just to highlight something worthy of highlighting. And, a guy who “was not, for God took him” seems worthy of noting. For some reason, Enoch did not see death. For some reason, he breaks the pattern. While it is written of the men before him in his family tree, “he died,” of Enoch it’s recorded, “God took him.” For some reason.

But this morning, more color is added to this verse (literally) because the reason hits me afresh. Maybe because the reason is repeated. Enoch walked with God.

Enoch stands out not just because of how he didn’t die, but more importantly because of how he lived. Literally, he walked habitually with God. He walked near to God. He knew relationship with God thus, he walked together with God.

But chew on that a bit. What does “walking with God” even mean?

Cue the Spirit to connect the dots. To remind me that He has not left me to come up with an answer on my own. Cue the Spirit to invite me to visit Hebrews’ Hall of Faith.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.

(Hebrews 11:5 ESV)

By faith Enoch was taken up . . .

BY FAITH . . . that’s what he walked with God means. By faith, that’s what brings one near to God. By faith, that’s the basis for relationship with God. By faith, that’s the essence of being together with God. By faith, that is what ultimately reverses the death trend. By faith, that’s the reason God took him.

By faith. And so, I pull out my light green colored pencil and twice shade Enoch walked with God. Like I said, pretty sure it’s a first.

And just in case I might be overly in awe of something based on just one verse, I immediately get a second verse. I get to repeat that shading again in the next chapter, the next time we read of someone who “walked with God.” It’s in Genesis 6 where I read that Noah too “walked with God” (Gen. 6:9). You know, Noah, the one who “found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (6:8) when the “wickedness of man was great in the earth” (6:5). You know, Noah, the one God had told, “You are righteous before me in this generation” (Gen. 7:1). Righteous as in perfect? Nope. Keep reading through the Hall of Faith and you’ll find Noah was “an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Heb. 11:7) — a righteousness imputed when one walks with God.

How’s that for a 2025 resolution? To know more deeply what it means to walk with God? To increasingly draw nearer, being together with God? To rest more assuredly in faith alone as to my righteousness before God? To live more expectantly that, because I believe, I too will one day be taken by God.

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.