In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1.). Certainly an appropriate place to begin this story which, I hope will help to create a better understanding of how to make sense of those mysteries of religion, faith and spirituality.
Man has come a long way from our earliest pondering of the night sky covered by a blanket of stars from horizon to horizon and wondering just who we are, and what is this whole life thing all about. Of course, we city dwellers have to go out into the country away from ambient light to enjoy such an experience. For the Old Testament Fathers as well as for the disciples of the first century the concept of the world, and their place in it was but a microcosm of the expansive nature of Earth, and the infinite space of God’s creation. Even today we have a difficult time grasping the notion of an infinite universe. That reality takes on some perspective when we realize that our Milky Way galaxy is some 200,000 light years across, and the nearest galaxy to ours is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, some 25,000 light years from our sun. Since a light year means traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second for 365 days, we can start to get a sense of the sheer enormity of His creation. Every day our increasingly magnificent technology permits us to peer further and further across light years of space, we see the unfolding of something that is believed to have occurred some fourteen billion years ago; the birth of our universe. We can even measure the age of our small planet to be some four and a half billion years old. What we are yet unable to answer is the biggest question of all; what came before, and how did something begin from nothing? C.S. Lewis claimed that to understand anything we must engage both imagination and reason in our thought processes, and as the great Christian apologist he used both as skillfully as anyone in crafting the stories that he would tell, and not just of his coming to a faithful understanding of scripture, he was masterful at using imagery to spark the imagination of millions to enter into a clearer understanding of a loving God and his plan for his creation. In trying to bring ancient scripture into a context that today’s reader needs time to understand, we will not only need imagination and reason, we will also try to connect with science, and add color and definition to the scriptural story of our very being.
Genesis talks about the earth, at its beginning, being formless and empty, with its surface being covered with water. That is certainly understandable, our present-day planet’s surface is indeed about seventy one percent water with oceans that run miles in depth. Combined they hold over ninety six percent of all of the earth’s water, in addition to the water vapor in the air, and the rivers and lakes. In fact, we humans are about sixty percent water, so water is an indispensable part of our being, and our ability to exist. As with the trillions of galaxies, stars and planetary bodies, all came out of swirling, primitive gases that became super-heated and transformed from hydrogen and helium into heavier elements that bonded together to form the heavier elements and molecules that make up the world around us.
There are some Christians, however, that believe that Earth is only about five thousand years old! That doesn’t seem to make sense when we know that the largest stalagmite in the world, in Vietnam, is some 230 feet high. Considering that stalagmites grow in natural cave at a rate of between 0.00028 to 0.00037 inches per year, I think we can dismiss such notions. Certainly, God can do anything He desires, but why would he speed up such a process? Scripture is confusing enough; he doesn’t need to confuse us further within the laws of the natural world!
We should also consider the very special nature of the Earth that He created for us. First, we are positioned at exactly the right distance from our sun, about ninety-three million miles away. Not too hot, and not too cold, sometimes referred to as the Goldilocks planet (after the children’s story). In addition, and during Earth’s early formation, our planet was impacted by one of the many meteors back then causing a large piece of both bodies to break off and form what is today our moon. Without our moon, we would not have the daily tidal movements that causes changes in the depth of the seas, producing the oscillations of tidal currents that move the waters around our planet. Finally, our Earth’s axis is tiled which very critically means that as we move around the sun, we enjoy the seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall. Without the seasons we would be unable to grow the food we need. Happenstance? I believe we can safely attribute this combination of miracles to the One who created it all.
The other question this raises is why God would create such an endless universe in which, as cosmologists predict, millions or billions of earthlike planets capable of sustaining human life could exist! Might we not then consider that our infinite, omnipotent God has created others in His image elsewhere across the cosmos? Might Heaven be at just such a place? Isaiah 65:17 “See I will create new Heavens and a new Earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create….” The bible contains nine separate references to “A new Heaven and a new Earth the last of which we find in Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away…” Not merely changed but Gone! In the same manner, as believing Christians we are to receive new bodies and our old aching, groaning and broken bodies will be gone. I believe these are important concepts for us to grasp, and hold on to for as we will discuss in later series, acknowledging the “prize” that God holds out to His faithful; not an eternity of floating around singing hymns, but a real, new life in companionship with God and our Savior, together with endless possibilities of exploring and enjoying every imaginable pursuit. Just for starters, try to imagine what this life would be like if there were no lying, cheating, deceit, etc. Who wouldn’t want such a future world, and isn’t that at the heart of what we teach and preach? When spoken of with passion and clear testimony it is hard to imagine that anyone hearing this would not want to run to hear more. That should be our mission; to connect the Bible stories in ways that inspire the imagination, create interest, and connects the linkages between scripture’s Old and New testaments, in ways that creates greater understanding, and causes the hearer to ask “why?” Perhaps such an approach would create an invitation to a clearer understanding of God, themselves, and the importance of embarking on a faith journey that will enrich their spirit and assure the preservation of their soul.