This past Sunday, I began a series at church I’m simply calling “Creation.” We are looking at the first 3 chapters of the Bible, and considering the foundational things we learn about God, and ourselves, through creation.
Week 1, I tried to take a big picture view of God — and some questions our existence leads us to ask: What happened at the beginning? How did we get here? Why are we here?
Those are vital questions, but I suggest that the most basic question is: “Who?” As in, Who is the Who (or what is the What) behind our very existence?
Asking how we got here, or even how we feel about how we got here, are important questions. But they come after we first wrestle with the Who or the What behind it all.
Picture it this way. You are taking a leisurely stroll through the park, when you come across a young couple. As you do, you see that she is sitting on a bench, and the man has just dropped to one knee. You watch as he pulls out a small case, opens it, revealing a sparkling diamond ring inside.
Freeze the moment.
No words have been shared; the moment itself is just beginning to sink in. You pull the girl out of that frozen moment, you point to the ring, and ask her, What is this?
She could say: “It’s a gold ring, looks to be 18 carat with a type 1B diamond with traces of nitrogen.”
Would she be right?
In one way, yes. But in the context of the moment, NO!!! You’d want to say: Yes, that’s what the ring is made of; but it’s not what it means!
Or, in this freeze-frame moment, spin things and look at another possible answer the woman might offer. She could say, “I’m so excited I can’t speak; my heart is all aflutter, and my hands are shaking.”
Would she be right this time?
Yes, for the moment. She certainly feels all those things. But, again, there is much more to the situation than simply how she feels in that instant.
To the question regarding the ring and the moment, she could respond by trying to explain the quality of the ring — or the quantity of her emotions. But the explanation for the ring is more than its metallurgic qualities, or its emotional responses.
In that moment, and in the days and years ahead, its meaning is in what it points to: a lifetime of committed, faithful love. The scientific qualities of the ring are real, and they matter. The emotions she feels as the gravity of the moment pulls at her heart, are also real.
But neither can explain the Why behind the moment: all the love, the longing, the desire, the hope, the promise that are wrapped up in a shiny rock in a shaky hand being offered to her, awaiting her response.
I offer this as a picture of how we are to read the first pages of the Bible. So, the questions we often ask — How long is a day in Genesis 1? How old is the earth? How DID God do the actual creating? — are not the ones Genesis is trying to address. Perhaps we misread Genesis when we first bring our scientific questions (as important as they are), or our emotions about what happened (as necessary as they are) — but instead, ask: What does this tell us about God? About us? And about the world where we find ourselves?
When we allow Genesis to guide our questions, I think it leads us to better answers — ones that then help us to live in light of what we learn about God, creation, and ourselves.
That’s behind the message I shared on the God of creation. I invite you to give it a listen.
