The Art of Creation
I was never much chop at classical Hebrew. I studied it at College for a few semesters, but struggled to make my way through jots and tittles, despite a good teacher and some success with koine Greek. Scraps remain … of almost entirely no use at all. I remember my Old Testament lecturer telling our
I was never much chop at classical Hebrew. I studied it at College for a few semesters, but struggled to make my way through jots and tittles, despite a good teacher and some success with koine Greek. Scraps remain … of almost entirely no use at all. I remember my Old Testament lecturer telling our class about the poetic beauty of the Genesis creation story and how each day of creation was stepped out in verses and balanced against the others in structure and form.
In the beginning, God created …
The wonder of the story is echoed in the beauty of the language, as God’s word and breath and love craft all that is. This is a celebration of creativity, of music and art and poetry and dance, inherent in the story and in the character of God’s self. God is both within the creation, wandering around in its midst, a
nd beyond the creation, offering shape and form to sun and moon, to earth and sea and sky.
And God said, “let there be light”; and there was light.
It is here, in the opening words of Scripture, that we discover our understanding of the worth of our world, so easily diminished into words like ”environment”. We witness the exquisite care of God’s shaping and naming each and everything, proclaiming God’s value on this world of ours.
And God saw that it was good.
This shapes our theologies of God’s good earth, but this story holds even more for us. When human beings are placed at the heart of God’s creation, we discover ourselves already in God’s heart. Our image is God’s, woman and man together. This is not a lonely creator, but a God already in community – Father, Son and Spirit – who creates out of love and sheer enjoyment. The creation narrative is always a story about why and not about how.
God saw everything he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
It’s in this first story that the people of Israel heard of the need for rest and re-creation, the Sabbath. As Eleanor Farjeon wrote and Cat Stevens sang, “God’s recreation of the new day”, we rest and create, we work and we are renewed, as God is.
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.
This glorious narrative reminds us, in every verse, that God loves what God has made. We – and all the creation – are from the very heart of God. As Scripture works its way with God’s fumbling, faithful and glorious people, our first understanding of God is that we are in God’s community, and resident in God’s heart.
A good start, is it not?