In the Beginning Gen 1:2-5
Genesis 1:1-5 (NLT)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
Once upon a time, I decided that my little girl, Ainsleigh Michelle (a.k.a. Peanut), needed a doll house. Christmas was on its way and I was determined that she was going to have one, and not just any one. No sir, we had spent many an hour at the local Hobby Lobby and my Peanut had stared up at the massive victorian wonders with awe and desire. Her dolls were going to have a nicer home than we did but that was OK.
Pennies were saved, dollars were socked away, and at last the day arrived. I made the purchase and took home a box straight from pandora.
If you have never attempted to build one of these dollhouse kits let me enlighten you. When you open the box you immediately know you are in trouble. Aside from the walls nothing else is recognizable as part of a house, and there are several thousand pieces. I am no stranger to construction, I am a hobby furniture builder and know my way around a saw and a joint, but this thing was intimidating!
To make matters worse, they put a large and vibrant picture of the completed house on the front of the box so that little girls believe there is a fully formed home on the inside of the cardboard and they do not understand why they cannot play with it on Christmas morning.
As soon as the wrapping paper was cleared I set to work. Pulling out all the pieces and sorting them into like piles before I found the instruction novel at the bottom of the box. I have built dressers from a fallen log that took less steps than this house. Over the next 3 weeks I worked on that thing like it was my full time job. I’d come home from work and change clothes while Ainsleigh waited impatiently for us to get started. She provided the giant blue eyes and motivation, and I provided the superglue ravaged fingers and resolve.
When we arrived at the cedar shingles that came in a giant bag and were placed individually I nearly broke. One at a time, cut and shaped to fit and held until the glue set, for days. And then came the electrical wiring for the lights and the fan, the wallpaper carefully selected and applied, and finally the furniture artfully chosen and placed. We do not have time to talk about how we decided it needed a yard with a fence and it should be on wheels.
________________
“The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”
It’s Christmas morning and God is standing over the raw materials He has just called into being. The initial inhale into violent exhale of creation. The cosmic powers have been brought to heel and now it is time to craft them into something beautiful. There is one reason that He is doing all of this.
Us.
Heaven and Earth are great and all, but this is for His kids! This will be no mere planet, it will be a paradise full of wonder and every good thing. It must be perfectly right!
If gravity were just 1 part in 10³⁴ stronger or weaker, stars (and therefore life) could not form in a stable way.
If the cosmological constant were off by even 1 part in 10¹²⁰, the universe would either collapse back in on itself or expanded too fast for galaxies.
Water expands when it freezes, making ice less dense than liquid water. If this weren’t true, aquatic life would be extinguished every winter.
And God saw that it was good.
I am not sure how, but we usually read this account and get into arguments about literal creation v poetic representation of creation. That is like reading Pinocchio and arguing about the kind of wood the puppet was made out of. If you missed the point of the story any further you’d loop back around on it and catch it from behind.
This is not a blueprint being drawn up by a harried engineer. This is the fire of passionate creation being formed just so by a creator that cares down to His toes. He does not move on to the next day’s work until he has perfected what He intended for us. This is a labor of love by the embodiment of love.
I am an earthly father. I love my children with a white hot flame and there is nothing good I would withhold from them. If I, being earthly, know how to build dollhouses for my daughters because it will delight their hearts, how much more my Father in Heaven has crafted for me in this universe I get to live and play in!
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
Once upon a time, I decided that my little girl, Ainsleigh Michelle (a.k.a. Peanut), needed a doll house. Christmas was on its way and I was determined that she was going to have one, and not just any one. No sir, we had spent many an hour at the local Hobby Lobby and my Peanut had stared up at the massive victorian wonders with awe and desire. Her dolls were going to have a nicer home than we did but that was OK.
Pennies were saved, dollars were socked away, and at last the day arrived. I made the purchase and took home a box straight from pandora.
If you have never attempted to build one of these dollhouse kits let me enlighten you. When you open the box you immediately know you are in trouble. Aside from the walls nothing else is recognizable as part of a house, and there are several thousand pieces. I am no stranger to construction, I am a hobby furniture builder and know my way around a saw and a joint, but this thing was intimidating!
To make matters worse, they put a large and vibrant picture of the completed house on the front of the box so that little girls believe there is a fully formed home on the inside of the cardboard and they do not understand why they cannot play with it on Christmas morning.
As soon as the wrapping paper was cleared I set to work. Pulling out all the pieces and sorting them into like piles before I found the instruction novel at the bottom of the box. I have built dressers from a fallen log that took less steps than this house. Over the next 3 weeks I worked on that thing like it was my full time job. I’d come home from work and change clothes while Ainsleigh waited impatiently for us to get started. She provided the giant blue eyes and motivation, and I provided the superglue ravaged fingers and resolve.
When we arrived at the cedar shingles that came in a giant bag and were placed individually I nearly broke. One at a time, cut and shaped to fit and held until the glue set, for days. And then came the electrical wiring for the lights and the fan, the wallpaper carefully selected and applied, and finally the furniture artfully chosen and placed. We do not have time to talk about how we decided it needed a yard with a fence and it should be on wheels.
________________
“The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”
It’s Christmas morning and God is standing over the raw materials He has just called into being. The initial inhale into violent exhale of creation. The cosmic powers have been brought to heel and now it is time to craft them into something beautiful. There is one reason that He is doing all of this.
Us.
Heaven and Earth are great and all, but this is for His kids! This will be no mere planet, it will be a paradise full of wonder and every good thing. It must be perfectly right!
If gravity were just 1 part in 10³⁴ stronger or weaker, stars (and therefore life) could not form in a stable way.
If the cosmological constant were off by even 1 part in 10¹²⁰, the universe would either collapse back in on itself or expanded too fast for galaxies.
Water expands when it freezes, making ice less dense than liquid water. If this weren’t true, aquatic life would be extinguished every winter.
And God saw that it was good.
I am not sure how, but we usually read this account and get into arguments about literal creation v poetic representation of creation. That is like reading Pinocchio and arguing about the kind of wood the puppet was made out of. If you missed the point of the story any further you’d loop back around on it and catch it from behind.
This is not a blueprint being drawn up by a harried engineer. This is the fire of passionate creation being formed just so by a creator that cares down to His toes. He does not move on to the next day’s work until he has perfected what He intended for us. This is a labor of love by the embodiment of love.
I am an earthly father. I love my children with a white hot flame and there is nothing good I would withhold from them. If I, being earthly, know how to build dollhouses for my daughters because it will delight their hearts, how much more my Father in Heaven has crafted for me in this universe I get to live and play in!
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