Mystery of Creation

Stop.

Take a deep breath. As you breathe in say, “God, you are the Creator.” As you breathe out say, “God, I trust you.” Repeat as many times as you need.

Listen.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. – Genesis 1:1-2

Reflect.

For the next few months, all our Sunday worship services will read from the book of Genesis. Genesis is a book of beginnings; in fact, the Hebrew name for the book of Genesis is bereshit, which literally means “in the beginning” – the very first words of this book. 

One curious thing about the first lines of the book of Genesis is that they’re a little difficult to translate after those first few words. Depending on what you might like to think about how God created and what God did to create, you might translate those words a little differently. Notice how four other translations handle the words we just heard from Genesis 1: 

·      In the beginning God made from nothing the heavens and the earth. The earth was an empty waste and darkness was over the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was moving over the top of the waters. (NLV)

·      In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. (NLT)

·      In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (NIV)

·      In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (KJV) 

It’s easy to get lost in the details. Did God create everything from nothing, or did God create from an existing chaos? How exactly did God move over the face of… well, what was even there for God to move over? What’s the timeline on all this? 

While we could fight for ages on what, how, when, and which, notice more than anything else the subject of the verb, no matter what the verb. God is the subject. God is the actor. God is the one who does whatever it is God needs to do. Creation belongs to God, no matter how it happened, and we can trust God to handle the details. 

Creation mattered to God then and still matters to God now. We might not always understand the shape of it, but our Creator does. We can trust God.

Pray.

God, sometimes I get confused by all the questions. Thank you for hearing me and granting me wisdom. When your work goes beyond what I can understand, help me to trust in you. Amen.

Carry On.

What’s one mystery of creation that you are going to name, recognize, and let go today? How does it help you trust in God’s continuing action in your life?