Beginning

The Word starts with the words, "In the beginning God..."  (Genesis 1:1)  Of course, what follows are words that speak of God creating order out of chaos, a physical universe out of a dark void, and everything that is out of nothing.   But, if you read the Scripture as I often do, you might find yourself getting hung up and stopped dead in your tracks with those first four words.  To be truthful it is hard to get our minds around the idea being set forth with these few words.

 

One of the things to which the Word speaks is that there can be no beginning of anything without God.  There are many who would argue that God is not necessary for this beginning to take place.  There are those who offer other beginning alternatives.  The Scripture does not really seek to prove that God exists, nor does it discuss the moment of beginning in such a way as to discredit all the other possibilities.  Instead, it is spoken or written with the underlying assumption that God exists and that He is the One responsible for the created order as we know it.  He is clearly identified as the One who controls all that it is.  Both the things about creation we deem as good and those we regard as tragic are set forth in such a way as to pass through His hands.

 

In other words, everything about the creation passes first through the hands of God.  For some this is a frightening option to consider, but for others it is a source of hope.  God put what is in place and in motion.  The creation looks more like a process than a finished product.  The good news is that the One who started working with it in the beginning is still the One who is sustaining it and controlling the outcome.  And as we are reminded much later than Genesis, God is always at work to bring about good things for His children.