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Stop me if you've heard this one -- ;) God was sitting in Heaven one day when a scientist said to Him, "Lord, we
don't need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life
out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the 'beginning'."
"Oh, is that so? Tell me..." replied God.
"Well", said the scientist, "we can take dirt and form it into the likeness
of you and breathe life into it, thus creating man."
"Well, that's interesting. Show me. "
So the scientist bent down to the earth and started to mold the soil.
"Oh no, no, no..." interrupted God,
"Get your own dirt."
Okay, now to the real stuff -- lol
Who is God?? Why are we here?? -- And no, it's not cheating to do 2 questions at a time here, as you'll see, the answers are entwined. While it may be tempting to have the answers to all of the questions in this series neatly packaged with pretty little bows on them, that just isn't going to happen. We are all figuring things out as we go, so the answers may shift or change accordingly... So buckle up, my friends, we're in for an amazing ride...
"Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start..." (sorry, music gets the better of me every time) lol
Seriously though, turn to Genesis 1 -2... The first important observation to make just in the reading of these is that the writing style is Hebrew Poetry. It draws us in with patterns and rhythms. The second part of this observation is to acknowledge that Chapter 2 is not in "opposition" to Chapter 1, it is simply the Hebrew practice of repetition in their teaching methods. So having gotten the literary facts laid out, we can look at the message in more depth. You can read the passages in full at your leisure, but we're just going to focus on bits and pieces today.
Verses 1 and 2 paint a vivid picture, don't they?? God in HIs fullness, just out there in the dark looking at this formless clump. So we know the story of each day and the list... skip down to verse 28. God's first act toward Adam and Eve was blessing. He gave us the power to reproduce ourselves in order to care for the plants and animals in loving, tender care-taking. (may God guide your wisdom on this)
Ch. 2:3 God rests from work well done. This sends a couple of powerful messages to us just on the surface, but also on deeper levels which we'll get to in a few minutes. The first point is that God rested. This gives us permission (and even a mandate later on) to do the same. Take a break, recharge, just be... The second lies in the word "rested" itself as it is literally translated as "settled in". We all most likely know what it's like to move from one dwelling to another. Whether you are organized (like me) or not at all; it's a "pain in the pinfeathers". But once everything is in place, we "settle in". We rest from our efforts. We inhabit the space. This is exactly what God did. He inhabited His Creation. No matter which side of the line you land on between Ch. 1 verse 1 and verse 2*, we can all agree that, 1. There IS a Creator. 2. He made everything ON purpose and FOR a purpose. Some have also said that God created us because He was "lonely" or "needed someone to love Him"... The fact is, He was complete in Himself. He was independent, separate, and Holy. He CHOSE to create the same way we might chose to paint or draw or write or build something. It's just an expression of who we are. God's creation is an expression of who He is. And this brings us to the deeper points hinted at above --
The fact that God is The Creator tells us several things about Him --
-- He has power beyond measure -- His Words alone resulted in an organized universe!!
-- He's creative -- just think about all the variety in what's around us between the plants, animals, and even ourselves (as reflections of Him). And then all the space stuff... WOW!!!
-- Beautiful -- the variety doesn't just extend to type, but colors, some even beyond our natural sight!!
-- Spectacular -- just the wonder of all He's done, not only through Creation, but since...
-- Unfathomable -- He was always there and always will be -- our finite minds can't grasp it
-- Physical Boundaries -- Land/Water/Air distances in space for perfect alignment...
-- Moral Boundaries -- Good/Evil - He made it, so He makes the rules!!
-- Good -- we see through the Creation narrative that everything God made was good. This goes beyond a job well done to one that was morally good. This carries a deep meaning. Since He created everything including us, then we are good because He says we are. It also means that we cannot ignore any of His other creations. (including each other) It all matters. We all matter... *zipping lips now*
Humanity is unique among God's creations. If you notice the storyline, everything else was made by His Words. We are the only ones sculpted by hand with His breath bringing us to life after the fact. This was the point where God joined Heaven and Earth together. God did this to reflect His love to the rest of His Creation and show what it looks like when He rules and reigns in the world. As mentioned above, our tender care-taking of creation. We also reflect Him in the sense of Community. If you notice, 1:26 and 27 show God saying "our image". This is indicative of the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are spiritual beings, we have souls, and we live in a body. There you have it, three in one. As Christians, it is our re-created commission to spread God's love to the World.
As humans, it's in our nature to want to "flip the script" and make our own rules at times. We want to decide what's good or bad for us or for others. But we know that always leads to a mess, don't we?? As a final thought toward this (for now) Turn real quick to Job 38. We're all familiar with Job, right?? Or at least we've heard of the expression, "he has the patience of Job." God literally allowed Job's world to be turned upside down and Job was faithful through a lot of stuff for quite a while. Then he listened to his friends for a minute too long and got upset... God's response is truly epic!! In Job 38:3, God literally tells Job, "brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you will answer me..." He goes on to ask Job things like, "Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundation... marked it's borders.... shut up the sea???" God gave him the gift of shaking him up and setting him straight. May we have the same response when we think our ways are best, or better yet, think twice before thinking to take on God's role at all... God Bless!!
*Note from above -- Concerning Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2. Some believe there were millions of years between verses. This is called "The Gap Theory". Others believe verse 2 immediately followed verse one in history. I happen to agree with the Gap Theory myself. Not only does it make sense to the story "In the beginning... Now", but properly executed science supports a young earth. Dinosaurs are not mentioned in the Bible and it's clear to me that something catastrophic happened before this.
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