‘In the Beginning’ but which one?
My Beginnings:- After my birth, other beginnings followed:- education, faith, work, family, retirement. But my real original beginning was my conception through love. Hidden away, I was formed, with the increasing bump as evidence. Oasis Pregnancy Advice Service especially promotes the value of the developing human life from this beginning. As Psalm 139:13 says, ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.’
Our Beginnings – What does the Bible say?
The first words of Genesis are, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ That puts our God as the instigator of, and the power behind our creation.
In verse two, the Spirit’s presence was with God. And the apostle John also includes Jesus at the beginning, both in his Gospel and in his first letter. Gen 1:1-2 hints that this earth was ‘formless and empty’ - waiting for life. It was like a clay bowl, waiting for colour and glaze to be added and fired, to become beautiful and useful.
In the following verses, we have the progression that made our living world:- light, atmosphere, water and land, vegetation, with all living things in the air, water and on land. Finally, in v27, God made humankind, both male and female ‘in His own image’ (our spiritual ‘God Spark’), and gave him rule/responsibility over all the other creatures.
Chapters 2 and 3 deal with specific people - Adam & Eve and their disobedience to God’s command (sin) and their resulting fall from God’s Grace. Paul, in Romans 5, compares this fall by the one man Adam and its resulting death for us all, with the death of the one man Jesus Christ and his gift of eternal life with Him, through faith in Him. Praise God for this reconciliation!
Did God create the universe in 6 days as outlined in the biblical account (our Majestic all-powerful Creator God could have done just that) or were the days spread over eons of time? A much debated question -
But for now – The Bible is:- Not a scientific paper, but a book of relationships; God with humankind, and between ourselves. It’s a LOVE story - BY the Creator FOR His creation; a family saga with all the ups and downs; an interactive play for ourselves with God today.
What a God of love to put our trust in; one who sees us through all the ups and downs of life! 1John 4:9 tells us, “We love because God first loved us...” Paul writes of this indispensable love 1Cor 13:2 “If I ... can fathom mysteries and all knowledge (like earth’s beginning) ... but do not have love, I am nothing..” If we love God, then we will keep his command to love Him and our neighbours. LOVE is nothing if not received and shared. So who needs our love today?
Keith Johnson