F O O T H O L D
READING
12 THE UNIVERSE IS BORN
PRAY Lord God, thank you for
your creative power and your enjoyment of
beautiful things. Help me to
meet you today and to worship you.
today.
READ Genesis 1:12:4.
THINK What does this account
teach about God? List five adjectives to
describe God as pictured in
this passage.
FOCUS Scientists debate
about how and when the universe came into being.
Most of us watch the experts
on TV and are bemused. But the writer
of Genesis 1 doesn't go into
long arguments. He makes one simple
statement! 'In the beginning
... God created the universe' (1).
This account has a unique
majesty. It is so simply told and yet
its message is so deep. Read
it again and feel its rhythm.
GOD THE CREATOR. Here we
meet a God who is already existing and
uncreated. There is no
attempt to explain him he's just there!
Scientists and technologists
are ingenious. But they work with
existing materials. God
formed the universe out of nothing. No one
can imitate that! And when
God set the world in orbit he did not
abandon it. Even in all the
chaos, he was there (2) watching,
caring and enjoying. (Look
at verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 to
see how God felt about his
world). The universe keeps going
through God's same creative
energy (Hebrews 1:3).
PEOPLE, THE CLIMAX OF
CREATION. The narrative speeds to a climax.
'All creatures great and
small' fill the sea, the air and the
earth. But at the climax are
the human beings. When God created
human beings, what
privileges and responsibilities did he give to
them?
PRAY People are not just
highly developed animals. They have the unique
ability to hear God, to
respond to him and to love him. What does
this tell you about your own
value to God? Thank him now.
