“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2)
You know that feeling when you stare at a blank page, a newly sharpened pencil in your hand, and a world of opportunity at your fingertips? Those times when you imagine the beginning of a story, and then rewrite it in your mind a bunch of times before you decide which is the BEST use of your imagination. The piece of art you produce is what made you shiver with excitement before it took shape.
God, the ultimate example of creativity, once looked out on a great empty void, and decided, "Let there be light."
Before there was even light, God imagined the cosmos, the earth, humanity, and all of its history. He imagined a beautiful relationship with humanity, which was bound to be broken in very short time. After that, He imagined His heart breaking millions of times, as He watched those He loved hurt themselves and hurt Him, finally killing Him, and even then, He knew that they would ignore Him. Hate Him. Mock Him.
He imagined this as He looked over the void, and knew He could create a different story. A different world, a different way.
Still He said, "Let there be light."
And so it began.
I don't know why.
I usually like to have a neat wrap up for my posts, but this one I don't. It was a thought I had that blew my mind a little, so I'm sharing it, but I suppose it's something I'll never know unless I can ask Jesus and I can comprehend His answer.
I like to look for parallels between our nature and God's, but when I sit in front of a blank canvas, I just don't choose a painting that shames me. I would never write a song that disgraces me, or choreograph a dance that makes me cry.
Even if I knew it would result in a happy ending, those people who brought judgment on themselves for lack of repentance would never leave my mind. I wouldn't choose a story that turned out that way, but God did.
Lots of people say that God can't exist, or if He does He can't be good, because of the evil He allows to exist. Could it have been changed if He chose a different story? Maybe. I have no idea.
Whether or not it could be, there is one thing I know, and that is that God is good. Whatever world He chose to create, He would not change, and I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
My finite mind can't comprehend much outside of its own borders, but what I know I will hold to, this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
Showing posts with label Genesis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genesis. Show all posts
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Friday, February 14, 2014
Reading Genesis Again
Hello! I'm back! I'm super super excited!! You'll never guess why. (No, this post has nothing to do with Valentines Day ;) ) I don't want to wait for an answer so I will just tell you, I am reading Genesis again!! :D
Usually I am not so excited to read Genesis, or at least the first few chapters, because since I have gone to Sunday School for many years and have always been in a Christian environment, I know the story. I know what happens, it doesn't seem that exciting to read it.
So usually when I read it I try to imagine all of the intricacy of the things being created in the first chapter, and how vast the universe is, and how God just came up with it all off the top of His head and spoke it into existence, but for some reason, even when I do this, it has little meaning to me.
The reason I started to read it again was because of two things, both of which were said in the same night. One evening my sister mentioned that in the bible there are lots of comparisons with us and God and plants. ("I am the vine and you are the branches," "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water.." etc.) And in the same night a friend of ours said something along the lines of, "The old testament is full of prophecies and stories about Jesus."
Those two things just clicked for me and I decided to start over at the beginning and search for God's character and His story in the stories in the old testament.
Even looking at Genesis 1 in this new light was AMAZING. What used to be a simple chapter full of things I already know, was now an amazing...I don't know what to call it. It's like God wrote His story into all of the things He made, but you can't see it unless you look.
Since I am so excited about it, I will write about a few of the things I found in Genesis 1 and 3, and the rest you will have to find for yourself. :)
Okay, so the first thing I will write about, since I already mentioned plants, is plants. In verses 11-12 it says, Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
This is the coolest thing. Picture that the fruit tree represents God. The fruit tree (God) yields fruit, (us) according to its kind. (Made in His image) Whose seed is in itself, (you can look at this more than one way, physically, God made us to reproduce, and spiritually, when you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, and He is the one who can bear fruit (John 15:5) through us) and lastly, On the earth. (That one is pretty easy to figure out)
Okay, and then another really cool one I found was in verses 16-18, Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
In this part I saw the two great lights as God and Satan. The greater light (sun) is God, and the lesser light (moon) is Satan. They are both greater in power than us, hence why they are the two 'great lights,' but God is by far greater than Satan. Then, they are the rulers of the day and of the night. Day is light, and the greater light rules the day, Night is dark, and the lesser light rules the night.
I thought that was really cool, but then it got even cooler when I told my dad about it and he simply said, "You know what is even cooler? Think about what the nature of the moon is. It has no light of its own, it can only reflect the sun's light." Think on that.
And I was going to stop there...so you can stop there if you are bored and don't want to read any more, but I have one more cool thing to say, this occurred to me in Chapter 3.
In verse 16 it says, To the woman he said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
I have never ever seen this analogy, or one close to it, so it was amazing that I saw this, but here it is. Because of sin, women have to go through pain for their children to be born. Because of sin, Jesus had to go through pain for us to be born again.
Isn't that awesome?! :)
Sorry this post was really long, but I hope you all liked it as much as I did. :)
And if you have never seen the creation story in this light before, I strongly recommend you go and read through it! There is so much more that I said nothing about.
I just think it is so cool how when you look at the creation story like this, it is so evident that God knew exactly what He was doing the whole time. He knew His whole plan right from the start, and showed it even from the start!
NOTE: If you liked this post, please click here to read a short expansion on the Sun and Moon parallel.
Usually I am not so excited to read Genesis, or at least the first few chapters, because since I have gone to Sunday School for many years and have always been in a Christian environment, I know the story. I know what happens, it doesn't seem that exciting to read it.
So usually when I read it I try to imagine all of the intricacy of the things being created in the first chapter, and how vast the universe is, and how God just came up with it all off the top of His head and spoke it into existence, but for some reason, even when I do this, it has little meaning to me.
The reason I started to read it again was because of two things, both of which were said in the same night. One evening my sister mentioned that in the bible there are lots of comparisons with us and God and plants. ("I am the vine and you are the branches," "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water.." etc.) And in the same night a friend of ours said something along the lines of, "The old testament is full of prophecies and stories about Jesus."
Those two things just clicked for me and I decided to start over at the beginning and search for God's character and His story in the stories in the old testament.
Even looking at Genesis 1 in this new light was AMAZING. What used to be a simple chapter full of things I already know, was now an amazing...I don't know what to call it. It's like God wrote His story into all of the things He made, but you can't see it unless you look.
Since I am so excited about it, I will write about a few of the things I found in Genesis 1 and 3, and the rest you will have to find for yourself. :)
Okay, so the first thing I will write about, since I already mentioned plants, is plants. In verses 11-12 it says, Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
This is the coolest thing. Picture that the fruit tree represents God. The fruit tree (God) yields fruit, (us) according to its kind. (Made in His image) Whose seed is in itself, (you can look at this more than one way, physically, God made us to reproduce, and spiritually, when you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, and He is the one who can bear fruit (John 15:5) through us) and lastly, On the earth. (That one is pretty easy to figure out)
Okay, and then another really cool one I found was in verses 16-18, Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
In this part I saw the two great lights as God and Satan. The greater light (sun) is God, and the lesser light (moon) is Satan. They are both greater in power than us, hence why they are the two 'great lights,' but God is by far greater than Satan. Then, they are the rulers of the day and of the night. Day is light, and the greater light rules the day, Night is dark, and the lesser light rules the night.
I thought that was really cool, but then it got even cooler when I told my dad about it and he simply said, "You know what is even cooler? Think about what the nature of the moon is. It has no light of its own, it can only reflect the sun's light." Think on that.
And I was going to stop there...so you can stop there if you are bored and don't want to read any more, but I have one more cool thing to say, this occurred to me in Chapter 3.
In verse 16 it says, To the woman he said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
I have never ever seen this analogy, or one close to it, so it was amazing that I saw this, but here it is. Because of sin, women have to go through pain for their children to be born. Because of sin, Jesus had to go through pain for us to be born again.
Isn't that awesome?! :)
Sorry this post was really long, but I hope you all liked it as much as I did. :)
And if you have never seen the creation story in this light before, I strongly recommend you go and read through it! There is so much more that I said nothing about.
I just think it is so cool how when you look at the creation story like this, it is so evident that God knew exactly what He was doing the whole time. He knew His whole plan right from the start, and showed it even from the start!
NOTE: If you liked this post, please click here to read a short expansion on the Sun and Moon parallel.
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