genesis

Michaelangelo's Creation of Adam painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel , Vatican City

Google searches are the most curious things for teachers.  They yield results that are either outrageous or predictable.  Want a great google search?  Go down the rabbit hole on the word "Genesis".

Albums, stories, books, definitions, bands, medicines and vitamins, clinics, films, energy... and none of them able to tell you with any certainty about Genesis- the reason for a beginning.

If you look at dictionary.com the definition of genesis is an origin, creation or a beginning.  WHY? Why would something begin?  Wikipedia gives several links to take us further: the first says "Book of Genesis, the first book of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible".   This is where "Genesis" is seen as the most popular hit: the one that explains the beginnings of everything we know of in this world.

I didn't become a Christian to check my brain at the door.  I've read Lambda Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) and I admire Stephen Hawking.  Here's what I believe, however.  When it comes to origins, (our genesis) this world was created.  It didn't come from a series of complicated events based on random warming and cooling patterns, nor did it result from an explosion.  I can't scientifically prove it...but I believe that it was created by a creative God.

This is where Genesis begins.  It begins with a belief that God created all things that are seen and those things we can't see.

In believing this, I separate myself from many people I love and respect (even though they're wrong) that believe in The Big Bang.  They're not fooling anyone either...they can't prove scientifically that The Big Bang happened.  They can't even defend their theory without calling it a working assumption.  In this one area, we instantly become believers, and are forced to have faith in our own belief.

In other words, no one can scientifically prove how the earth began.  Instead, Creationists and Cosmologists both agree that what we can hypothesize our origins, but at best, "proof" is only what we see now.  We are  believers in principles and theories that support our belief in origins.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."  is how the Bible begins.  It is found in the first line of the first book, called Genesis.

Because of this one line, I believe that we (created in God's image) are born to create.  We love the idea of creating, some are artists, others are writers.  Still others love creating a safe home or environment for all to come to.  Many of us find things and make them even better, or restore them to their original beauty, re-creating a thing of goodness.

It has held my thoughts today.  We are born creative.  We are born to create.  Even in Lambda Cold Dark Matter is the thought that periods of time and space "gave birth" to others.  The thought makes me giggle... it's almost an explanation of the second verse of the Bible:  "And the earth was without form and empty. And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters."

If you continue to read the first book of the first book of the Bible, you will find that God created things and said about each one that it "was good".  And then, He rested.

This year, as we begin, remember who you are.  You were created in the image of God.  Everything He created was good...and He said so.

I go forward into this year and pray that what I create out of it each day will be good...giving light to the darkness.

Blessings this year...and create good things.  It's in you.