God makes good stuff.  

Poetry.

This is the word that comes to my mind after reading and reflecting on the beginning of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Everywhere from the beginning to of the book to God resting on the seventh day constitutes a single cohesive creation story, one that likely predates the composition of Genesis by hundreds of years. And the story is pure poetry.

Here's the rundown: God creates the heavens and earth. From over top dark waters, God creates one feature per day, all by the power of his voice alone. The first three days he makes day and night, the sky over the seas, and the land, plants and trees. The next three days he fills up what he made in the first three days: He makes the sun moon and stars, the sea creatures and birds, and finally the land creatures and the humans.

The humans (both male and female) he creates extra special by making them like God ("in the image of God") and he assigns them to fill the earth and to rule earth. Finally his creation is complete, and it's all very good, so he takes a day off. The end.

I get the sense this story stood by itself before it was part of Genesis, but I'm guessing the rest of Genesis will also fit it in with it quite nicely.

Like I said, this passage is pure poetry, some of the most compelling poetry I've ever read. It speaks to my heart in a poetic way, even though it's not a native English story. How? Because the beauty is in the way the author uses the events of a creation story to explain things about God and man and the earth. This story says that God is in total control. It says we're here to be like God and rule the earth. It says God created a really good earth that is full of harmony and order.

Good times.

And the story does it all through this beautiful foreign medium of a creation story. God's power is demonstrated through his SPEAKING causing the earth to appear. He creates with order and harmony: light, sky and ground followed by sun, birds, and wild beasts. Beautiful. The story literally breaks out into verse about how humanity is made in God's image.

Another note: God is a character who talks, both to himself and to humans. Interesting. All in all, it's a story that stands in stark contrast to other ancient creation stories, where humanity is an accident or is the product of a god's masturbation.

The idea that someone could take this first part of Genesis as the literal scientific truth is downright silly, I have to say. After all, in this story, the earth is created first, then later plants, and then yet later the sun moon and stars. This order and timespan is literary rather than scientific.

There is harmony; there is a powerful, intentional God who talks; there are humans ruling over the earth like God wants. God is taking a holiday. It's a good deal.

I think there are many that would love to read the first story of the Bible and leave it there, that humanity is doing just fine, thank you, and if there is a God, he put the answers inside us. But looking at the world it is obvious things didn't play out the same way they started (started according to Genesis). Even in this first reading, I can't help but think of unjust wars being fought these days, over a billion people without good water, and oppressive governments.

Even now in my own life, I just got off the phone with my beautiful fiancee. She had some reasonable emotional needs, and I had some reasonable needs for sleep and getting over a headache. We didn't communicate all that well and I don't think either of us were satisfied. I got off the phone and just punched my bed because I'm so frustrated and angry that she could be sad and yet I am too weak or selfish to do anything about it.

What happened to "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good"?

(note: This was a lot of reflection on not much of Genesis. I expect, after the first few days, to read 4-5x as much at a time. However, the beginning of this book is so rich that it's hard to read more than what I did today.)