Thoughts from the Bible

 

I wrote this a few days ago. My thought was to read through the Bible and just write down what thoughts I have as I'm reading, maybe use them in a daily devotional at some point or something. It's not like I'm ever going to need them for sermon notes.

From recent activities and posts on Twitter and Facebook that have followed, it appears that a lot of people are struggling through some anger and dark times. Maybe this will help. Maybe not.

It's not really fleshed out. It's just what I wrote after reading the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. I have to admit--the Bible isn't the same book I once used to preach from. It no longer holds that "infallible, inerrant, Holy Spirit written Word of God" status that it once held. I view it more as the history, stories, and lessons learned and taught by a nation of people that lived several thousand years ago.

Some of the stories are real. Some are told to teach. Some are written as subversive and secret messages to an oppressed people. They are stories of how this people found a connection to God (religion), and how we can also find a connection to God through Jesus, his son.

I realize it ends kind of abruptly. Like I said, it's just something I wrote after reading. That said, I'm interested in your thoughts.

Here it is:

Genesis 1

Interesting observation that darkness wasn’t created. Light was created. God existed in darkness before creation--at least according to the Genesis story.
God created the Earth and the heavens in the dark. Then God created light, separated it from the darkness, named day (light) and night (darkness) and that was the first day.

It’s weird that God didn’t create light first. I wonder why.
I get that it’s not like God needed the light to see to start creating in the great cosmic workshop, but since the Bible is written as a story from the perspective of humankind--well, I would have turned on the lights first.

It probably doesn’t mean anything, but it is possible there is something for us in the simple order of this version of creation. Maybe it is important for us to know that God exists in the darkness.
The Earth was without form and existed in the darkness. And the Spirit of God was there, hovering in the darkness. Could it be that knowing that God exists in the darkness is an important thing for us to know? It may be that when we are in our darkest places, we can be comforted in knowing that yes, God is there, too.

If we were physically in a dark place, we would use our other senses to know what was around us. We’d listen. We might sniff the air. We would move slowly with outstretched arms. I wonder why we don’t do the same when we are spiritually or emotionally in a dark place. I believe we have more of a tendency to shut down and to fear the loneliness rather than to use our other senses to find God, to find love, to find anyone that can help us to realize we are not alone in the dark.

*****

I have to say that I like God’s work ethic. I can get behind doing a little bit in the morning and then knocking off for the rest of the day. It’s been my same approach to doing yardwork.
God does get after it as the week rolls on. By Day 3 (I wonder if God already used “Tuesday '' for the third day or if it was like being retired and it didn’t really matter what day it was) God is flat stepping out and creates all of the vegetation and fruit on the Earth. That’s a very productive day! (See what I did there?)

What lesson(s) do you find in this first account of creation?

John