In The Beginning...

Isn't technology wonderful? This year I'm using the ESV One Year Bible which will guide me through the complete Bible in the year 2010. It's organised by the ESV Bible publishers, and the day's readings pop into my RSS reader (Google Reader) every morning at 8.30am.

On Friday, we got stuck in with day one's readings - Genesis 1-2, Matthew 1-2:12, Psalm 1 and Proverbs 1:1-6. Every day there'll be a section of the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Psalms and Proverbs. When I can, I'll try to blog something about the readings, either on the day or shortly after.

Genesis 1 is all about beginnings. With the words that John later picks up, 'In the beginning', Genesis takes us back to the start of every created thing. But while everything was being created, God was already there, the Creator by whom and through whom everything else was formed.

Three things strike me from the account of creation:

1. God's Word has power - God speaks, and things happen. Let there be light, he says, and there is light - three days before the sun is formed! At each stage, God speaks, and the creation is established and completed.

2. God creates in his image - humans are created in God's image, 'in our image, after our likeness', and given the task of being fruitful, multiplying, filling and subduing the earth, and having dominion. We are the pinnacle of creation, the final part, the only creatures made in the Creator's image, so we cannot think less of ourselves. But at the same time, we are still just creatures, we are not the centre of creation, so we should not think too much of ourselves.

3. God's creation is good - at the end of each day, God reviews his work, checks it, and declares that it is good. Having created humans, God's review declares that everything is very good.

A perfect paradise. So far from what we experience now, yet we look forward to when God will re-create, when the new heavens and the new earth are unveiled. Better than Eden.