In The Beginning

In The Beginning…
Genesis 1.1

I’ve got a birthday coming up in about three weeks (No cards, please). I like birthdays. Not because of parties and presents, but because they are an annual reminder that I had a definite beginning, March 17, 1953. My life is anchored in time, in reality. And, fitted into the great scope of history that is the story of God’s creation, my life hjavascript:void(0)as a purpose.

When you hear or read “Once upon a time” you know you are about to learn a fairytale. And you know you’ve reached the end of the tale when you get to the “ever after.” But the vagueness of the introduction ad conclusion indicates there is no real place in time when the events in the story actually happen. Fairytales always take place in some kind of “Never-never Land.” The Bible is not like fairytales, it is set in the real time of history. As a matter of fact, history marks its start with the words, “In the beginning…” of Genesis 1.1.

Of course, God existed in the measureless infinity of eternity past, the time before time, if you will, before the beginning. God simply has no beginning, or end. But, when God determined that he wished for all things to begin, he spoke the words which created the very first thing created—light. Someone might try and argue that darkness existed before God created light, but darkness doesn’t exist, it is nothing, void, the absence of light. If you don’t believe me, open up the door of a dark room and see if dark spills out and darkens the hallway.

Without passing any judgment on the void of darkness, we know that light is good, for God declared it so. (Genesis 1.4) And from the good foundation of light, God proceeded to cause the beginning of all the rest of creation, all of which he proclaimed “good.” Galaxies filled with numberless stars; solar systems with countless planets; the earth with its vast waters and dry lands; the creatures that fill the sea and the sky and the land. All, “good.” The sum of six days of “good? “Very good”:

good+good+good+good+good+good=very good

None of it possible without a beginning, and no beginning possible without God to interrupt the seamless eternity of his existence and create time, history, a past, present, and future between eternity past and eternity future. In contrast to the biblical worldview of history that started “In the beginning” there is the “Once upon a time there was a big bang” of the scientific worldview; one history so real, one so much like a fairytale. One creation with a cause and purpose: the glory of God; the other creation with no cause at all, nor any purpose.

All our personal beginnings are but the continued work of God who first said, “Let there be…” Regardless of the biological process of life, none of us would be here if God hadn’t said of us, at the precise moment in history he had chosen for us, “Let there be _____________” (Fill in your name). No “Once upon a time” for us, no fairytale make believe existence. Life, real life, beginning in the heart and mind of God our Creator, and, by the Grace of the Father through the Son, having no end, but a real “ever after.”