“In the beginning God…”
As far back as human imagination can reach, and then an eternity further still, there was God. Not some solitary, proud, bored God, but a Trinity—overflowing in perfect love, constantly in communion with himself. Out of no need or lack did he create the universe, but as a spillway of joyful, creative love, like a reservoir too full to contain and overflowing its bounds. We see the Trinity in the first three verses of the Bible—Father (v. 1), Spirit (v. 2), Word (v. 3): “then God said, ‘let there be.’”
But there is also a picture here of what life is like before God intervenes: “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters.”
Before God: chaos, emptiness, darkness. Not only does this describe a cold and lifeless planet, it describes human societies apart from God—unpredictable, hopeless, and mean. Think of the Soviet gulags and you can see it, a harsh Siberian prison. Brrr.
This also describes any individual life apart from God’s kindness, whether the person has fallen into utter despair or is simply going through the motions. After God is quite another story. Chaos becomes purpose. Emptiness becomes abundance. Darkness becomes light. Beauty, goodness, diversity, and love burst out at a word from the Creator. The same pattern repeats every time he touches a soul; once God enters a life, there is light, hope, and peace. God is love, and his presence lavishes love on us.
Genesis 1, in my opinion, is less about creation and more about the Creator. It is the beginning of an answer to the questions who, who, and why: who is God? who are we? why are we here? It offers less of an answer to how the world was made; after all, it is less of a science book, and more of a poem.
Still, there is enough here to satisfy an open-minded academic. The world, according to Genesis, abruptly and completely came into being, stars wheeling across the galaxies from a single bright starting point. (For hundreds of years, scientists thought this account of our origin was malarkey—obviously matter, time, and space were eternal. It was only after the Big Bang Theory that scientists grudgingly admitted okay, for some mysterious, unknown reason, the universe exploded into being ex nihilo, out of nothing. Not to be smug about it, but that’s what Genesis said all along.)
Earth is a planet characterized by meticulous and elaborate design—not just one kind of fruit-bearing tree, but thousands, not just one kind of organism, but millions, all hardwired to reproduce more of the same. Every creature, according to Genesis, was preceded by a perfectly organized habitat meeting every need. If the earth’s existence hangs on a knife’s edge of precise calculations—the exact gravitational pull of the sun, electromagnetic forces, the delicate inner workings of an atom, the tethered atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen, the distance between our watery planet and the life-giving warmth of the sun—then the precise mathematics of a master architect makes sense of the extreme coincidence of our existence.
Accidents
If you happened by chance to find an expensive watch on the side of a hiking trail—leather band, gold trim, lovely Roman numerals—ticking along and keeping perfect time, you’d never think it spontaneously combusted out there in the woods by happy accident. You’d assume it was designed and made by a pretty darn good watchmaker and lost by an unfortunate hiker, all the more lucky for you.
How are we here? Not by accident.
If you exist, there’s a place for you.
That’s the good news of Genesis 1. Before God made fish, he made an ocean for them to fill. Before God made birds, he stretched out the sky. He took time with this (he made time itself, after all); he made space for us, literally and figuratively. The first three days of creation were just setting the stage for the next three, in which paradise unfurled.
The world was created as a place of unbelievable beauty, diversity, and abundance. This is the kingdom as it was meant to be. What then does that say about the King?
All things are orderly and lovely in the beginning. God anticipated our every need. Every day begins in evening and ends in morning, a daily reminder that light wins. The gentleness, imagination, generosity, authority, power, kindness, and intelligence of God are on full display from the tiniest paramecium to the mightiest mountain range.
This is the God who invented peaches and strawberries, sunsets, meteorites, Redwood trees, giraffes, and ridiculous, hilarious puppies (toddlers with fur). If you have ever walked barefoot on a beach and stared out at the ocean or climbed, panting, to the top of a fourteener to see the world spreading out on every side, you have caught the tiniest glimpse of him. Through an electron microscope or the Hubble telescope, you might see a little bit more. He’s quite big.
Who is this Creator? He is goodness. He is love. He is forever.
Catherine's Letters 