Dear Amy,
How can we reclaim the glorious and majestic creation story of Genesis 1 from those who would have us cringe in embarrassment at the naivety of it all?
Hasn’t science come along and explained the universe? Hasn’t evolution come along and explained life itself? In these modern times hadn’t we better simply keep our heads down about this whole outdated, unsophisticated, and frankly ignominious description? By no means!
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
― Genesis 1:1-5
Since what I wrote last week began with what was so very dark, I have been musing on light, and my musing brought me to this. Let’s revel in the first day of creation.
Here we have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in intimate relationship, in the dance of the Trinity, an articulation of mutual love even before humankind is brought into existence. Can you sense the delight in anticipation in the hovering even before God speaks?
We need the introduction to John’s gospel to compete our picture.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
― John 1:1-5, 14
In the brief account in Genesis 1, God the Father speaks the universe into existence, and Jesus is the agent of creation.
How does this work? Wow! How bold am I even to try to dig into such a mystery?! But I have a simple analogy that has helped my own understanding.
If I want to scratch my ear, I merely think it and it is so. You could say I speak to my arm and it lifts, and to my finger and it scratches. It works like this because it is my own body and I have power over it.
The entirety of the universe belongs to the Lord and he has absolute power over it. It is as much connected to his commands as my own arm is to mine. What an awesome God we serve! Praise him!
But then we come to this.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
― Genesis 1:5
And here some people start wringing their hands in embarrassment, and others start trying to calculate the age of the earth. But both responses are inappropriate.
The Hebrew word here translated day is yôm. The same word appears throughout the Old Testament with various translations. Here’s just one example.
Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
― 1 Chronicles 29:26-27
David’s yôm for reigning over Israel was forty years. And furthermore, when we notice that God didn’t even create the sun, moon, and stars until the fourth day, perhaps we can stop worrying about what a day means in the creation story.
God the Father who loves us, Jesus his only Son who saves us, and the Holy Spirit who lives in us, together created the universe and all that is in it, in a display of unspeakable power and wisdom and creativity. Let’s rest unashamedly in the mystery and majesty of that and praise the Lord!
Praise the Three in One who created it all, Amy, and try not to let your head explode with the vastness and wonder of it all! 🙏