And God saw that it was very good

It’s funny how working on a paper will cause me to think of something else while I’m writing. The other day I had to stop in the middle of a thought for a paper to jot down some poetry that might turn into a hymn in a few weeks – stay tuned for that! Today, this very minute, I had to stop while reading a familiar passage to me and to anyone who has ever picked up  a Bible before. Page 1. I’m reading about creation and I’m writing about, ironically, writing. Something leapt off the page for me that didn’t before.

I had to pick a vocation and talk about how it has dignity by rooting it in the biblical story, starting at creation. We have a tendency in our evangelical circles to bypass the first two chapters of Genesis. Maybe it’s because we are so familiar with them; “oh yeah, creation, that happened, but then they rebelled!” We skip right over it. A lot of my classes at Covenant have helped me to slow down when I open my Bible and remember it all started out good, OH SO GOOD. I need to sit in the fact that God made people good. He made creation good. He made this world good and a very fit dwelling for us. In the words of one of my professors, “He intended us to live here. He didn’t drop us off at the wrong address. He doesn’t make junk and and he doesn’t junk what he’s made.”

In my slowing down to read this familiar story I find myself curious that after each thing that God did, he saw that it was good. And you know the rest of the story. God creates man and he “saw that it was very good.”

In each instance of God creating, he saw that it was good almost immediately after he made and named what he had done. But before this proclamation of creation with the inclusion of humanity as very good, he gave them an invitation (Be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth, have dominion) and a blessing  (he gave them the earth with all the plants, animals and the dirt). Not until after the invitation and blessing – giving man and woman a purpose and the ability to mirror God’s own good acts, was creation “very good.” God’s creation was very good when he gave creation to man to steward.

It’s not often something likes this pops at me while reading a familiar story. I think this gives me pause because as an image bearer of God and created with great care, I’m able to see how good, how very good it is to be human. God didn’t call creation very good until the blessing and invitation were in place. I’ve never noticed that.

In my subduing and caring for the earth (which I confess I do not do often enough), I am acting in line with the way God intended at creation. In a way, humans are not reflecting the very good-ness of creation until they join God’s blessing and invitation. It is a very good thing to bless the earth.

These thoughts are all very much in process, but I had to put pen to page to get them started. I hope you will enjoy the journey of discovery with me.