Monday, March 3, 2008
Genesis 1:1-5 (NIV)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
It's interesting to see how God separates things from each other in order to give them definitions, such as heavens & earth, waters & surface, light & darkness, day & night, morning & evening. In my opinion, the fact that the Spirit of God hovers over the waters gives the notion that God is thinking about what else to create in order to bring life on to this formless and empty earth... These scenes clearly show that we were not made by accident. Rather, God had deep thoughts and plans for all of his creations on this earth.
All to familiar, but always new whenever I read this again.
This time I notice that "waters" was there before light! Water plays such an important in our life as well as our bodies. It signifies so much throughout the Bible as well.
It is also clear that God saw that the light was good.
my thoughts:
1) this is such a straightforward account of the start of the universe that like other parts of the Bible, it's hard to tell how much of it we should take literally vs. figuratively. for instance, describing "light" as "good" appears to be figurative since it doesn't seem to make sense literally.
2) things were good when life in the universe was simple and sin was not present. why do our lives seem to be ever-increasingly tough, stressful, pressure-filled? i wonder if our chaotic lives today are literally direct consequences of original sin.
3) a clear distinction is made from the very start (verse 1!) between the heavens and the earth. i'm not sure exactly why but i find this very interesting.
I honestly take the creation stories as more figurative than literal. i do believe that God created all, but i believe a day to Him could mean an eon to us - or a nanosecond. Time is such a fluid, strange concept.
Anyway, what jumps out at me is that we define the world by contrasts. earth vs water, light vs dark, day vs night. can we have "good" without "bad"? Why did He say that light was good. Wasn't everything good in the beginning, before original sin?
Finally, I am struck by the thought of witnessing the very first day of creation. Wow! How gorgeous and awesome that must have been. And I am struck that each day since that first is equally as miraculous and awesome. How quickly we become inured to miracles!
Post a Comment