I alluded to the fact in a prior post that I feel as though I'm going through a period of re-creation right now. The process has been a struggle for me as I try to make any kind of sense out of what is happening in this season of life. In the midst of the struggle, I've found myself thinking a good deal about the creative process and about the creation story in Genesis 1.
We were at New Hope Family Church in Sioux Falls on Sunday (we are pretty sure it will be our new home church unless God opens up a ministry job that He wants me to take). The sermon was on creationism vs. evolution. Pastor Chip did a very good job at laying out the facts of the debate with a desire for objectivity so that people can decide for themselves. Obviously, he had a strong bias on the creationism side, but wasn't afraid to address the fact that there are a few issues with creationism that will probably remain a mystery such as literal 24 hour days in the creation story or figurative.
As he spoke, he read the account in Genesis 1. When we got to day 4, I really wished we had camped there a moment in the "literal vs. figurative 24 hour" debate, because on day 4 we essentially see God create time:
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning the fourth day.
I don't think it makes a literal 24 hour day for days 1-3 a certainty, but I loved watching the pieces fall into place in a new way. I was trying to read this chapter with less of a textbook mentality, without familiarity and to allow myself to be captivated by the events it described. I was trying to picture it in my mind's eye as though I was given a front row seat to the creation of the world and tried to see it as though I didn't know what was coming next.
Day 1 was amazing! First there was this dark, shapeless void and then... BOOM! Light. Something I'm still trying to wrap my brain around is the idea that we get from Revelation of God being so radiant that He is the source of illumination. If God was like that prior to His creation of light, this would seem to be the first time in eternity that a source of light, radiance, illumination existed other than God. Can you imagine that scene? Glory to God! He just did something never before seen, never before experienced and never before even thought of. This was an amazing day and should be enough for us to be captivated by His power and His glory forever. But then came day 2.
Day 2 God began making something out of the nothing of the void. He took it and separated it out. He created the sky! Again, glory to God! He didn't even need to do anything more with this to impress us with His power. He could have left it as is and it would have been an amazing thing to behold.
On day 3 God created the land and the seas. Now where there was nothing but this shapeless void on day 1 and this separation of sky and water on day 2, there is this new thing, this solid matter with substance and shape that occupied actual space without the fluidity of that which came before it. Wouldn't this absolutely blow your mind? I'm looking at it and I can't believe that anything like this would have been conceived of based on what was there before. This was an amazing work of art that was the only kind in its medium! Not only did He form land, but vegetation was courtesy of day 3 as well. Plants, trees and their fruit and seeds. The reproductive cycle of vegetation was already in place and we haven't been given any indication that it is for anything but its own continuation. At this stage in the game, it just seems like God is showing off. By the time night sets in on day 3, I've got enough to process about who God is based on His creation to last me the rest of my life.
On day 4 more definition is given to this creation. The sun, moon and stars are all created. Did you catch that? The earth exists in the story before everything else that we see from it. More mystery than I can handle, but there it is. Not only are we given this ever changing, amazing canvas stretched out across the heavens to give us light, warmth and to inspire us to greater worship, God also creates the seasons, days and years. Again, it's a day that will amaze us if we will dwell on it and drink it in as we witness the creativity of a God who speaks things into reality beyond the imagination of any other being.
Day 5 brings the creation of birds and wildlife in the waters of the new creation. My parents are naturalists who spend a great deal of time watching birds and are amazed by the slightest variations from one bird to the next. I have inherited some of that, without the expertise. This isn't just a day that God created some birds and fish. This is a day he created thousands of varieties of creatures never seen before; a day He created eagles and hummingbirds, whales and octopi. This is a day where he created red shafted and yellow shafted flickers with seemingly no more variation than a bit of color. I am overwhelmed at the scope and intricacy of what was created just on day 5!
Day 6 is the money day for us. God finally creates man as well as other living creatures and gives man dominion over the creation that He has made. This is the day that the purpose of the rest of the creation comes into focus. This is the day that we think the whole creation thing is finally getting somewhere, because now we're in it.
We are day 6 people. Here's what that means to me.
God is a God of logic and a God of mystery. Could He have created the world in a different way? Probably. He's definitely creative that way. Does it make sense that He did it the way He did? Yes. Light, sea and sky, sea and land, plant life to produce oxygen and serve as food for the fish and birds to come, fish, birds, animals and fruit and vegetation to serve as food for man who is given dominion over the creation. Very logical (although stated a little too plainly to capture the glory of God in it).
I am in the process of re-creation. God is making something new of me and, if that is the case, there must be a reason for the way that He is doing it. I recognize that He has shed some light where there was only darkness before. I recognize that He is beginning to separate things out of me to give clearer definition to my life; things like the identity I have created for myself vs. the one I was given when Jesus entered my life. I am even beginning to recognize bits of land starting to crack the surface of the seas where I can begin to set foot instead of always swimming.
Here's where the tension in this process is: I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle of day 3 and I'm griping and complaining that it isn't day 6 yet.
Instead of embracing what God is doing in me and trusting that what He is forming is beautiful at every point in the process, I struggle because I can't see the whole creation yet and know what exactly is being created. Like a person that knows the creation story from Genesis and takes day 1 through day 5 for granted, I fail to be captivated by what God has created now. In the midst of my struggle, now God has done something beautiful. In the midst of feeling torn apart, now God has done something beautiful. In the midst of grieving separation from a spiritual family that I prayed for and loved like no other, now God has done something beautiful.
The process doesn't have to reach its end for God to be worthy of being glorified in it. And just like I've been mystified and captivated by the creation story this week, I don't have to wait for the clarity of day 6 before I embrace the beauty of what God is still creating in me.
No comments:
Post a Comment