Beginning

Everything and everyone has a beginning. You had a beginning. I had a beginning. Your next door neighbor had a beginning. The world had a beginning.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
~ Genesis 1:1 (NIV)

“First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see...” ~ Genesis 1:1 (the Message)

What better place to start the story of our journey than the beginning? I love how the Message version uses the phrase “first this.” It implies that there is more to come. There’s more to the story, but for anything to happen there has to be a beginning, a starting point, an event that gets the ball rolling.

“...God created...” What a beautiful phrase. Try to wrap your mind around that. He starts by creating the earth. In verse 2 of Genesis 1, we read that the earth is formless and empty and that darkness covered the surface of the deep. And right there in the midst of the darkness, God is found.

"...the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

God is there hovering over the deep, dark water and the first thing he does is create light. All he does is speak and light fills the heavens. He then separates the light from the darkness. God looks at the light and he sees that it is good. Light and darkness; day and night; day 1.

Day 2: water and sky. “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse ‘sky.’” Genesis 1:6-8 There was a lot of water. God spoke and the water separated into two sections: one above an empty expanse, the other below. The one above is sky and the one below is the oceans.

Day 3: land, seas, and plants God told the water to gather and it did. Seas are created. God told dry land to appear and it did. Land is created. God told the land to produce plants that would produce seeds. Plants appeared on the land and God saw that it was good.

Day 4: sun, moon and stars. God spoke and the heavens were filled with stars and galaxies. He created the sun (the greater light) to govern the day and the moon (the lesser light) to govern the night. End of day four.

Day 5: sea creatures and birds. God created the sky and seas first, so he fills them with creatures before the land. The water and sky teemed with living creatures. God gave them his blessing and told them to be fruitful and multiply.

Day 6: land animals and us. The land is filled with creatures that crawl, slither, gallop, hop and climb. God looks at his creation and is pleased with what he sees. But something is missing. Someone is missing.

Us.

God finishes his creation by making man in his image. Sunsets, stars, and the moon are amazing. Zebras, dolphins, eagles, tigers, porcupines, and turtles are amazing. But humans are the only things created in the image of God. The end of the sixth day came and God looked at all he had made and saw that it was “very good.” We had a good beginning. “First this...”

But we strayed from where we started. We made a mess of things. We tried to do things our way and all of a sudden things were different. There was separation where there was supposed to be communion. Discord where there was once harmony.

But it’s only the beginning. There’s more to the story. A story that is still being written. A journey that is still being taken. A beginning that has not reached its end. Join me as we take this journey together.