We are finished with Mark! Now on to one of my favorite portions of Scripture, the book of Genesis. We'll be doing Genesis two days in a row and a Psalm on the third day so that we won't be in Genesis for too long.
I was deeply affected as I read through this passage. Through it, the Holy Spirit really helped me to see how beautiful, how joyful, how playful our God is. I swear I could hear a Triune laugh somewhere around verse 21. After creating the birds and seeing them flutter across the sky for the first time, how could you avoid laughing at the mere glory of it all? I don't think even God was immune to such a magnificent sight.
There is an exuberance to God's voice as he creates. "Let there be! Let there be!" On the first three days, he makes the light and the heavens and the waters and the earth. And when he starts filling those spaces, starts creating things to fill and govern those spaces, you can almost hear the excitement in his voice.
On Day Four, God makes the Lights to govern the light he made on Day One. Let there be lights in the heavens to separate day and night and to give signs for seasons and days and years and to light up the heavens and give light to the earth (1:14-15)! On Day Five, he mades the birds and fish to govern the heavens and waters he separated on Day Two, but he doesn't just make them. He tells them to swarm and fly! "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens" (1:20)! On Day Six, he makes the earthly creatures to roam the earth he made on Day Three, "the livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth" (1:24). And all of it was good!
Then God made man. But he didn't just make man. He made man "in our image" (1:26). But he didn't just make man in their image. He made man "in our image, after our likeness." Image and likeness mean the same thing, but when you're excited about something, you can't help saying more about it than you otherwise would (at least, I can't!). God's enthusiasm is palpable. He's creating man! He's making image bearers, the crowning achievement of his creation! In a very real sense, God is giving life to new children. And he loves them so much, the first thing he does is give them the whole world.
First thing God does with his new kids is bless them (1:28)! God hasn't even talked to them yet, they certainly haven't done anything yet, but he's blessing them. These are his kids! Penny didn't have to do anything to win my love on the day she was born; she was my "beautiful baby girl" when she was still all messy from birth. God's fatherly love for his children is no less automatic. He blesses them and then gives them the keys to paradise (1:28).
There was no worry, fear, shame or guilt on humanity's birthday. There was nothing but sweet, effortless, unbroken fellowship between us and God. Every longing of our heart was fulfilled in our Father, every itch scratched, every need provided. Imagine what it would have been like to look out across a brand new earth and say with God, "it was very good" (1:31). That is the God we worship and serve. That is how he created our world.
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