Thank goodness for 2015! While I am always grateful to have
the privilege of seeing the dawning of another new year, I am also glad the old
year has been packed away with the Christmas decorations. I’m all for new
beginnings, do-overs, and more opportunities to try and get it right more often
than I get it wrong.
With new beginnings fresh on my mind, I’m drawn back to the
very first new year ever which is recorded in Chapter One of Genesis.
Everything else in the Bible is grounded in that creation story. It all starts
there, in the beginning.
Verse 3 describes the very first day: God said “Let there be
light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good.
The second day, verses 9-10: God made and separated land and
sea. And God saw that it was good.
Day three, verses 11-12: God made plants, trees, and
vegetation. And God saw that it was good.
Day four, verses 14-19: God made the sun, moon, and stars. And God saw that it was good.
Day five, verses 20-23: God filled the waters with fish and
the sky with birds. And God saw that it was good.
Day six, verses 24-27: God made livestock
and all the other animals. And God saw that the animals were good, but
He wasn’t finished yet. Still on day six, God created man in his own image. He
created male and female humans.
And God saw that it…oh, wait. It doesn’t say that there.
Further down in verse 31 God looked over the whole lot of His
creation and saw that it all was very good, but there is no record that God
looked specifically at the man and woman and declared them good as He did all
the other things He created earlier in the week.
It makes me wonder, why was the light good? What was it about the land, sea, sun, and
moon that made God see them as good? I don’t think God needed the vegetation
for food or the livestock to pull a wagon. God must have been doing just fine
without any of those things before their creation, so what were those things actually
good for?
I’ll tell you what I can’t live without in this new year: days, nights, land, water, plants, and
animals. I like to sleep when it’s dark outside, shower with warm water in the
morning, and then eat eggs for breakfast. I think God saw all those things He
created as good for humans, not for Himself. All of it was for us.
Why would God do such a thing? You’ve probably heard someone
declare their love to another by saying they would give them the world if they
could. Maybe it was just the moon they wanted to gift to their beloved. Those
words and ideas make good song lyrics, but even if we love another human that
much none of us can actually lasso the moon for them. That, however, is exactly
what God did because He loved us that much.
The sun shining through my window glorifies God with every
beam because that is what it was created to do. Rising in the east every
morning is its response to the Creator. It has no other choice. It’s a reminder
that God loves me. The human sitting here in my desk chair typing this was also
created to glorify God, but I’m afraid I don’t always do that. I do have choice
and sometimes, well, I’m in need of a do-over.
The good in humans is up to us. He loved us so much that even
before we were born He created the world just for us. We get to decide what our
response will be and whether we will use our lives to glorify Him or not. Will
we ever hear God say that He sees humans as good? I think it will come when it isn’t time
that’s measured, but rather the volume of the praises sung to God Almighty. It
is in the eternity of heaven that those who made the choice to spend their
earthly lives glorifying God will get to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
This was originally posted January 25, 2015 on The Press and Standard's website:
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