Up at 6.15am, a whole hour earlier than usual, and ready to go!
I have to admit I was a bit dubious about just what I would 'get' from the first chapter of the Bible. It has to be one of the most well known parts of the good book, referenced time and time again both in and out of Church, and a childhood of colourful Sunday-school lessons had left me a tad numb about it. However, I wasn't about to ignore it, so I dove in: I'm glad I did!
Here's what meant something to me:
GEN 1:5 'God called the light "day", and the darkness he called "night".
This is such a simple verse, and yet something really hit me today when I read this; God made the world for us. It's just a practical thing, but we've already read in verse two that God was hovering over the waters in the 'dark'. It hit me this morning, as I sat in my own early winter morning darkness, that God didn't need the light, we did. He made the light for us, as indeed he made the whole world for us. WE need light in order to see, move around, and enjoy the world.
What hit me next was the simple but often overlooked fact that the whole world was made for US to enjoy, and that was pretty profound to me.
GEN 1:20 'And God said, "let the water teem with living creatures".
This verse reminds me that God is an extravagant God - he didn't just make a few fish, he made the water 'teem' (abound, swarm, be prolific) with creatures. In our finite view of God we can often minimise what he wants to do for us, but God is a God of extravagance - the God of more than enough.
There are currently something like 230,00o species of marine creature that have gone through the process of being classified as unique creatures by scientists. This means that God was not lying when he said 'teem', and to me it paints a picture of a God who is extravagant and generous, giving, creative and abundant: very cool!
Gen 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Similar to my comment on verse 5, this verse speaks again to the way God made the world FOR us. The Earth and everything God put in it is for us, and if we allow ourselves we can see God through it. This particularly made me think of the urban nature of my life at the moment - I walk from a street of terraced houses, along a main road, into my work building. I stay there all day, then reverse the trip and almost always stay at home all evening. It made me think about how we limit ourselves if we don't experience God through nature, and made me resolve to do this more. In John Ortberg's book 'God is Closer than you Think', he writes about relationship pathways - ways we commune with God, and one of those I resonate with is the nature pathway. I won't go into his book here, but it just made me realise that the world, and nature is ours to enjoy and to see God through.
Quite a lot today - obviously God blessing me for the start I've made :)
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