Dependence

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1. This verse has been on my mind over this past week. Though the mystery of God is something that we’ll never fully understand, it is amazing how, through His Word, we are given glimpses of His face to better understand who He is…and in turn, better understand who we are and even why we are.

So…this verse has been on my mind a lot this week. I memorized Genesis 1:1 as a child. I’ve reverted back to it when asked if I had any scripture memorized. I’ve even used it as a joke to clarify that baseball is in the Bible because “In the Big Inning…God created.” As I was reading the Confessions of Augustine earlier in the week his musings about the mystery of God found in this verse stirred thoughts in me.

I can’t say I know much about building but I’m going to take a shot in the dark and assume that you probably start with a foundation. Maybe you need to even start before the foundation and pick out a good location for the foundation. Before doing that maybe there are other things to put in place first. What amazes me about the mystery of God is that Genesis didn’t say, “In the beginning God checked out the best universal real estate and then got to work.” What does that have to do with the mystery of God?

There are a number of questions that surround this verse: If God created from nothing, who created God? Did God get bored one day and then decided to create us…making us objects of His boredom rather than objects of His affection? These are questions often asked by those who are searching and should be treated carefully. I would like to go into these at a later time but not right now. What I would like to focus on is the mystery of God as THE Creator.

With no foundation, God laid the foundation of the heavens and the earth. All things were then created within the realms of that which was first created as a foundation. Nothing can be created that has not been created. God created me. God created you. The very air I breathe is because God created.

The first breath of God’s Word found in Genesis 1:1 paints the picture of dependence on God. From the very beginning, God has wanted us to understand that we were created in dependence on He who created. We find ourselves sprinting in the direction of deep independence...only going to God when we cannot do it ourselves. We try to create ourselves delving deeper into dependence on what our own hands bring to the table. The better we understand God as Creator the better understanding we’ll have of what God created us for…a relationship of dependence.