Day 1: Where it all starts

Luke 5:27-39; Genesis 1-2; Psalm 1

God, your word has been given for the sinners, the lost, the sick, to make them well. The purpose is to return to a community with God as it was in the beginning of time.

My tiny brain cannot even fathom the creation of the heavens and earth. The universe is so vast, so incredible, and to think that God created all that! God's greatness and power stretch beyond what I am capable of grasping with my human mind. How did He do it? What did He do before He had earth to watch over? If God knew that sin would enter the world, why did He create us anyway—is all the sin really worth a relationship with us? Or maybe that’s not it at all…GOD is worth the relationship. It isn't all about me. God created the universe so that You could be glorified through Your creation. Maybe that’s it.

The details are also incredible—God said there should be light, and so there was, but where did it come from? He doesn't make the sun until day 4. On at that same day, he wants there to be vegetation, and it happens, but in order to produce the diversity and intricacies of every plant and tree and flower, God must have to be incredibly creative and all-knowing. I picture the Lord moving through the waters and on the earth, with his hand outstretched, and from his fingertips flow all types of vegetation: maple trees, exotic flowers, plants of every shape and kind, like his very hand is a paint brush and the world is his canvas. And then he paints the zenith of his creation—mankind. I feel so disappointed because when I think of mankind and humanity today, in a lot of ways, it is not as wonderful as it would have been at our beginnings. We hurt and steal and kill one another—so far from the image of God we have fallen. God, you gave us responsibility to govern the earth and work with one another, and yet we attempt to dominate our own race with force, destroy our resources, and display a general lack of apathy towards your creation. And then I have to remember, that you chose to create us anyway. You made us special, with intellect, a moral compass, and a heart that is filled only when it is worshiping you. There are still humans out there that are living and loving in a way that does reflect your original creation. I thank you that some of us are trying to reflect your image.

Were humans ever really capable of not sinning? When God made us, why was he willing to take a risk, allowing us to make our own decisions? They say that true love is a choice, so when applied here, it makes sense—God gave us free will so that we would be free to love him truly. Choices allow us to make decisions and be free, God did not want us to be captive, so he provided options for life and living—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil next to the tree to life. It was good that Adam and Eve had choices and liberty to live and to love, without that choice, there would be nothing special about God’s relationship to mankind.Adam and Eve were created for each other and completed each other. God wanted to create a relationship that resembled his relationship with the Trinity—oneness. The relationship, the marriage, was characterized by complete openness, honesty, and mutual respect. That is the way God designed it to be and even still, that is what we should strive to be, in marriage and in the family of Christ.