Читать книгу The Grand Sweep - Large Print - J. Ellsworth Kalas - Страница 7

GENESIS 1; PSALMS 1–2

Week 1, Day 1

When Genesis draws back the curtain on the Eternal Drama, there’s only one Person on stage. God and Beginning are synonymous. Without God there is no beginning, and there is no beginning before God. So the drama begins, and God quickly establishes lighting (1:3) and time (1:5), then begins moving in scenery—waters, sky, dry land, vegetation.

Then there are creatures with a possibility of being more than scenery: birds, fish, animals, crawling things. At last, human beings (1:26-31), creatures who will play opposite God in this drama. They can fill this role because they are made in God’s image and are therefore able to communicate with God.

It’s an awesome picture, and all the more so because of the simplicity with which it is drawn. The writer sees no need to accumulate adjectives; it is enough that God will say, at intervals, Good! If God feels that way about it, what other word is needed?

I am impressed that the creation is such an intimate process. The Creator might be portrayed as a Master Engineer or the Ultimate Computer. Instead, Genesis tells us that God has soul; he wants to talk with someone. So the creation develops step by step on the framework “God said.”

Science speaks increasingly of a Big Bang at creation. Genesis tells of a big conversation. But, of course, science is talking about how, while Genesis is telling us about who.

PRAYER: Help me, O God, on this day of new beginnings, to have all my beginnings in you. Amen.

How will my attitude toward the environment be affected if I seriously believe in God as Creator?