Genesis 2; John 1:1-18; Hebrews 1:1-14; Psalm 145
There are those who believe that the world that is just happened perhaps as a result of a big bang. I never found that satisfactory. There are others who are willing to believe that God created, but that since then he has left it all up to us. They see Him as a disinterested creator. He set the world in motion and then moved on to other things, sort of like winding a clock and leaving it to wind down.
The Scriptures for today paint a very different picture. Their picture of the creator is of one who is startlingly alive and prolific, a God who loves variety and beauty of all kinds. We see a God who makes all these wonderful animals and then realizes that none of them is an adequate partner for Adam. Realizing this he creates a woman who will be a perfect compliment to him. Within his creation scheme he creates humankind to care for all the other things he has created. Humanity is given the dignity of work. You get the sense of glorious beauty, wonderful abundance and flourishing life. All is good!
Christian scripture is very careful to stress that the God who began all this continues to be involved even to the extent of becoming one of us. Psalm 145 stresses that God is good and that he has compassion on all that he has created, in fact he loves it! He has never abandoned it, nor neglected it. He remains involved. It is still his plan to have an extravagantly beautiful world where people live and grow. He still wants to walk and talk with his creation. He desires a loving involvement with all that he has created.
We learn through these scriptures that God did all of this through the Son. Jesus was there at the beginning and it is through him that we move and live and have our being. Knowing this makes it all the more remarkable that he took on bodily form and came to live with us. In a children’s sermon that I gave several years ago I likened it to one of us becoming an ant. Ants are remarkable creatures as anyone with an ant farm will attest. Ants are divided into colonies with different ants taking on different roles—even that of nursery caretaker. The children told me what they had learned about ants and the discussion was lively and appreciative of ants. But when I asked who would like to be an ant, there was dead silence. When asked why not, the children immediately gave all the things they would miss by becoming ants. While ants were amazing they were definitely a lower being and no one wanted to exchange their human life to become an ant. How could God love us so much that he willingly exchanged his heavenly life (Phil. 2:6-11) for the confinements of being human? This is not a God who is indifferent to his creation. This is a God who loves beyond measure. This is not a God who said “I’ve done my part, now work it out for yourselves!” This is a God who says “I know you in and out and I am here to be the very breath you breathe. I will be the spirit within to comfort, teach, admonish, love and tenderly nurture your growth. I will complete what I have begun. You will be my people and I will be your God and we will live together in a world that I have prepared for you from the beginning.” It boggles the mind!
