Date: 19 September 2007 17:09:32
I recently wrote a bible study for SCM, in connection with this years theme; Small World, which looks at the connections between different parts of the world, and the impacts various changes in the environment will have on every individual, regardless of faith, class or social standing. In this study I focussed on the creation story at the beginning of Genesis.
The theme I was trying to follow was the question of where the creation story ends. The account of creation stops at the end of this passage, but what happens then? God the father, the creator, is beginning and ending, he is ever present, so we are told, so we believe. Does he stop creating at the end of the second verse of Genesis chapter 2?! Reading this passage it is easy to think so; the world came into being, God was pleased, and stopped to rest and admire his handiwork. And that was that. But the world we live in is far from constant. It has changed in many ways, some more rapid and more noticeable than others, and continues to do so. This is something we cannot dispute.
I find it hard to imagine, or to believe in, a God who is involved in the creation of his world over a finite period of time, and then steps out of the picture, having nothing more to do with it as it grows. If we profess a faith in a living, omnipresent God, who listens to and answers prayer, and is 'pleased' with his creation, surely this God is actively present in our lives, and consequently, in the evolution and continuing development of this world? And if we accept that God is still creating, changing, shaping our world, then we also, as his creation, as his followers, have a part to play. The creation is documented, in the form of a story (which you may or may not believe to be literally true, that doesn't matter), in the beginning chapters of the bible. It tells how the earth was formed out of the vacuum of space, something from nothing. Inspiring stuff. But still more inspiring surely, is the possibility that this description of the creation is there to show us the continuing story of which we are part. The first chapter of Genesis tells not the whole story of how the world was made, but the first chapter in the life of this planet. The next chapters are being written now, by you and me.