Genesis 1 The FIRST Week
The first week of creation was a ‘work week’ for God. Our triune God had conversations with Himself as He spoke into existence ALL that there is.
We completed our journey through the bible. Now I want to go back and try some ‘first person’ stories and what better place to begin than the beginning of time. In the creation story, we see God speaking and also using the verb “We”. I want to expound on that ‘conversation/exchange as if we were in God’s presence ourselves. We will be ‘the fly on the wall’ as we simply observe.
I’m separating the three parts of God so they can have a conversation and individual actions. I don’t know if God separated the tasks of if the dialogue we see is internal. He is One while still being Three. ***I’m NOT trying to be disrespectful or flippant in my story. I trust God finds humor in it too.***
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Out of the emptiness, we hear a voice. “It’s time.”
Another voice asks, “What is it time for?”
“It’s time for the beginning of Our masterpiece!”
“I was wondering when You would be ready. Let’s get to it!”
“Before We get started, You KNOW they are going to make a mess of it all.”
“I know.”
“You know it will cost Us DEARLY to repair what is broken.”
“Yes. I know.”
“Are You willing to pay that price? The price of blood?”
“I am. I am willing to do whatever it takes to redeem this AMAZING work We have been waiting for.”
“Then, let’s get started!”
God stretches out His hand and prepares a space on His ‘workbench’. The place where Their masterpiece will sit. His Spirit hovers over the space, waiting to help bring substance to the words God is about to speak. Jesus, God’s Word, stands ready too. Excitement crackles in the blackness; anticipation of the first words of creating the awaited masterpiece.
“Let there be light” (verse 3).
Jesus reaches into the void and pulls from its center a spark. The nearer it gets to the surface, the brighter it becomes. The Holy Spirit reaches out to hold the light that Jesus has brought forth. They turn it this way and that until they are satisfied with its form and brilliance. Then they look to God for His assessment. “It’s PERFECT!”
All three sit back and watch the light as it spins, exactly as they had intended it to do. Then He affixes it to the center spot on His ‘workbench’. He has the forms He gathered first revolve around the light. They revolve as they move. As they pass, only a portion at a time receive the light. “Let’s call the time when the light illuminates any section ‘day’ and when that section loses the light, we will call that ‘night’.”
“This is good” God says and all three agree. They all watched with smiles as the first day and first night passed.
“Ok. Let’s keep going” urged Jesus.
”Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters” (verse 6).
Jesus and the Holy Spirit begin bringing form to the words spoken by God. Substance and separation begin to appear. An atmosphere is created and swirling water is contained within its bounds. This required a delicate balancing of the waters above and the waters below. Getting it just right took the whole day. Once it was ready, the two turned to God for His assessment.
“Excellent” God replies as He examines the work. “This is a good start.”
“What’s next” asks the Holy Spirit.
“It is time to make the place where Our crowning creation will inhabit.” Jesus and the Holy Spirit nod at one another and prepare for God’s next words.
“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear” (verse 9).
The Holy Spirit gently moves the water to the side as Jesus draws from the center land masses. He affixes them firmly to the center of the mass being created. He molds them into the shapes He knows will work best for what comes next. The Holy Spirit fixes the barriers for the sea. It will go so far and no farther. He tethers them to their beds while also allowing them to move; to rise and fall, to expand and then contract at an even pace.
When the work is done, all three gather to view the progress. “This is great but let’s keep going” says God. But there is still more to do in this day.
“Ok. What’s next?”
“Plants” replies God. “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its king, on the earth”
Jesus and the Holy Spirit begin stirring the ground until life begins to burst forth from it. That life results in trees, grass, flowers, herbs, hedges, and every beautiful plant imaginable; and Jesus had quite the imagination!
It’s time to present it to the Father again. “Well, what do You think?”
“It is marvelous! That’s enough for this day” says God. So, the three sit back and watch as the evening and morning of the third day pass.
“The expanse is too empty. It needs something more.” After a moment, God knows what it is. “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth” (verses 14-15)
Jesus reaches into the dark again MANY times as He and the Holy Spirit create many more sources of light and scatter them about on the ‘workbench’. These are the pinpoints of light that their creation will call stars. It is a HUGE expanse that God is working with, so it needs a significant number of stars to bring beauty to it. The Holy Spirit breathes on these stars and sets them in motion. They will give order to the days, weeks, and years that pass in God’s creation.
One specific light is closer than the rest. It is a reflecting surface created to occupy the night so that God’s creation is never truly without light. This lesser light will dance around the earth that God has created, forever in its company.
The three watch as the lights move in the heavens. “This is good” says God as He enjoys the ‘show’. The fourth day and night pass into history.
“It’s time to make moving things on the earth. To bring life to more than just vegetation and plants.”
Jesus and the Holy Spirit ready themselves for work.
“Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens” (verse 20).
The Holy Spirit stirs the waters again and living creatures begin to fill it. Everywhere He touches, new creatures appear. There are MULTIPLE varieties and each is unique in its form but they share the seas with pleasure. They move about in groups, swarming as they explore the spaces created just for them.
Jesus reaches into the heavens and pinches His fingers together, time after time, after time. Each time He releases His pinch another bird emerges into the sky. Jesus creates such a variety that it can’t be counted. Large birds with beaks that look like baskets, small birds that seem to hum as they flit from flower to flower, majestically soaring birds that reach the heights of the heavens, and even birds of SO MANY COLORS that they rival the flowers in the fields. The birds form small groups and large groups as them move about the heavens. And their voices FILL the sky with praise to their Creator! This is the song that the three listen to as the fifth day concludes.
As the sixth day dawns, all are ready to continue. This day holds something special in store. First things first though.
“Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds – livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds” (verse 24).
Jesus and the Holy Spirit divide the task. Jesus takes the larger animals while the Holy Spirit woks on the smaller and creeping animals. Each is hard at work, molding and sculpting what fills their imagination. Some of the creatures bring a chuckle to the three. Jesus makes one with extremely long legs and neck. The Holy Spirit created one that began in the water then moved onto the land. Its adult form would hop great distances whenever His hand came near it. Not out of fear but out of joy. So MANY different kinds of animals were created that day that God quit numbering them.
God called them all back together after a time. “Theses are AMAZING Father! Are we going to name them?”
“No my Son. I’m reserving that task for our GREATEST creation.”
With baited breath, Jesus and the Holy Spirit wait as God sets out the parameters of their crowning creation. “Let us make man in our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (verse 26).
With solemn looks and a deep breath, all thee begin this crowning work. Jesus creates the form, the body, while the Holy Spirit works on the ‘control center’, the brain. God focuses His attention of the spirit, the heart. All three parts will work together as one, just as God does. Every thought will affect the heart and the body, just as every emotion arising from the heart will touch the brain and body, and as every move of the body will impact the brain and heart.
When everything is ready, God looks to the others. “Are we ready?” Nods all around. God then lifts this amazing creation to His face and breaths on him.
Man’s lungs expand and his heart begins to beat and pump blood throughout the body. His eyes flutter open and the first sight he sees is that of his Creator. A smile spreads on the man’s face.
“Hello” says the man.
“Hello to you too my child” says God. After a moment God places him onto the ground. The man is standing in a garden of GREAT beauty. But that beauty is NOTHING compared to the face of the Father.
“There is work to do my son” says God.
“Lead on, Your servant is waiting” replies the first man.
God brought man to the center of the garden and gave him his first ‘boundary’, rule.
“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16b-17).
Man nodded his understanding and acceptance of God’s first rule. He was ready for whatever God had next for him.
God began bringing the animals to the man to see what he would call them. The man marveled at the variety and enjoyed the company of each as it was brought before him. Some of them even elicited a bit of laughter at their remarkable design.
After all the animals had passed before the man and were named, God noticed that something was lacking in the man. All the animals had ‘helpmates’ while the man had none. He was alone to do ALL the tasks. None of the animals were suited for a mate for him, and God WANTED children.
After the man’s initial task was finished, God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, God began working again.
“We must make a helper for him. It is not good for him to be alone.” Instead of starting from scratch, God removed a rib from the man so that his helpmate would be a true part of him. Together God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit created the perfect helpmate for the man. It would be called woman. She would complete him in form while not taking the place of the Creator in his spirit.
Once they were finished, they woke the man. A big yawn escaped his mouth as he stretched his arms. In mid-stretch his eyes fixed upon the woman. God had created her especially for him so he couldn’t help but love her! He recognized that she was part of him, unlike any of the animals that God had brought to him before. “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23b). God named the man Adam and the woman Eve.
God took them together to the center of the garden He had created for them and He gave them their instructions as a couple. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (verse 28b).
Before ending the day, God set boundaries on ALL of His creation. “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food” (verses29-30).
Both man and woman, whom God named Adam and Eve, nodded their understanding and willingness to follow the rules God had set down. Adam would inform Eve of the restriction God had imposed on the ONE tree in the middle of the garden.
As the sun sinks in the west, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit conclude their work. Their sixth day is ended and man’s first as well. Adam and Eve lie down beside one another and sleep the sleep of the innocent with a covering from God for their ‘blanket’.
The next morning dawns and God gives man another ‘boundary’, rule. God commanded EVERYONE, including Himself to rest on this day. The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit watch Adam and Eve enjoy their day of rest. And this day involved spending as much as possible of it with God. This would set the pattern for the rest of time on earth.
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Did you notice that ALL of creation would live in peace. NONE would eat anything but the plant life God had provided. Death would not enter into the garden until sin did. But that is a story for another day.
Father God, thank You for sharing Your story with me. I pray I have not offended You or anyone else with my imagination. Thank You for giving me my imagination in the first place. I wish Your creation would have stayed as pristine as You made it.
THANK YOU for not scrapping the who thing before it even began! You CHOSE the hard road from the beginning.
