Very Good

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.  And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.  Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.  By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 

Genesis 1:31-2:2

Six times God surveyed what He had created and found it good.  Yet now, having completed this universe and created man in His own image to manage that creation the verdict changes.  Upon completion God sees that the whole system is very good.  God was pleased by the finished work of His hands.  As any artist or craftsman knows; that pleasure comes from the fact that His perfect artwork reflected His character – His power, His love, His artistry and His love.  It was “very good” now because it reflected the Creator more clearly now than it had at any given point.  When Sin entered this world the mirror of Creation became a less effective tool to see the character of God.  Death and decay did not destroy all the beauty of the earth, but it did make it harsh, dangerous, and even cruel.  No longer can we look at the created world around us and see a perfect illustration of the Creator.  God’s love was too great to allow His beloved children to die, alienated from Him.  He revealed Himself through His Son Jesus Christ – “the visible expression of the invisible God”.  He revealed himself through His word – The Bible.  He reveals Himself through the amazing power of His Holy Spirit at work on the heart of every living being – convicting the unbeliever and indwelling the believer.  Though many of the things that were created to make Him known have been fractured His purpose has not been thwarted.  At the end of all things Christ Jesus will stand upon the redeemed earth – victorious!  By His provision at the Cross – we who humbly accept His grace will stand with Him.  Not because of the works which we have done, but because of His amazing Grace.

The Command to Care

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
Genesis 1:28-30 NASB

I remember when my parents gave me my first guitar.  I had wanted one for some time, I had invested time learning to play on my dad’s guitar.  When my parents gave me my own guitar it came with a solemn charge.  This was a gift, but it was expected that this gift would be taken care of.  It was a way to show appreciation.  I was not just being given a gift, but I was being given a gift that needed to be maintained and was meant to be used for a specific purpose.  God created mankind to fill, care for, and enjoy His amazing creation of planet earth.  This charge was repeated to Noah and his descendants after the great flood (Genesis 9:1-4).  This planet is a special charge for humanity.  To discover what God has made and how to best support it as it supports us by God’s provision.  Just as my parents’ charge to me to care for my first guitar was really for my greatest good, so caring for this amazing planet is an important part of the charge of every believer.  We were never meant to abdicate our management of this domain either in the sense of abusing it, or in the sense of worshipping it and thinking that the earth would be better off without us.  We are meant to interact responsibly with our physical environment, appreciating and enjoying the great gift that it is to us from our loving Heavenly Father.  And yes, I still have my first guitar, and it still gets played, enjoyed and maintained.  

The Image of God

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:26-27

God had created a beautiful and wonderful paradise.  Truly, we cannot even imagine what the earth looked like, and how it functioned at this point.  Before sin’s stain had entered the world there was no death, nor was there catastrophe, nor destruction.  The plans and the animals of both land and sea worked together in a perfect and harmonious system.  A person’s faculties could reach their end simply seeking to imagine this wonderful world.  Yet, God’s creation still awaited its pinnacle.  God intended this new and beautiful creation to be ruled by a type of creature who bore His own image.  Upon examining the wonders of the natural world it is expected that we will be awestruck and impressed.  Yet the greater miracle is the place of humanity in that marvelous creation. 

Humanity was designed to represent God in this Creation, caring for it and looking after it through moment by moment reliance upon Him.  Humanity was created and given this amazing domain.  Humanity alone was impressed with the very image of God – a finite reflection of His infinite power, will and majesty.  Humanity failed to fulfill God’s desire and plan, but in His grace God provided a provision for all of our failures.  This original mandate will finally be fulfilled when Jesus Christ sets foot again upon this earth and rules and regulates it, at long last, with all of the wisdom and power that is needed.  God gave a command for mankind’s mission upon this earth, and then provided for that mission to be completed.  All to His glory, all in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Beasts of the Earth

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.  God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 

Genesis 1:24-25 NASB

In looking at the many and varied creatures that crawl upon the land we see a God who is infinitely creative and given to remarkable detail.  The creatures that crawl upon the earth show such an amazing creativity that we struggle even to comprehend it.  These animals move in different ways, reproduce in different ways and survive in different ways.  Each unique creature has enough complexity to consume countless human lifetimes just to understand what God has provided these creatures in order to display the wonder of His magnificence.  A camel has a unique structure to hold water and to survive in harsh desert climates that would destroy most others.  A polar bear has entirely different set of provided biological equipment to survive in the frigid tundra.  Each of these creatures has shown itself to have purpose within the great and amazing context of the interconnected system of continuing life on planet earth.  Beauty, strength, speed and resourcefulness that surpasses human ability show themselves time and time again and remind us of the amazing Creator who loves and cares for us.  Yet, it is man alone whom God created to live in a special and unique relationship with Him.  All of these amazing creatures, in all of their great variety, are a vivid testament to God’s power and limitless intelligence.  It is this God who desires to be in an active relationship with every human being, and in spite of the myriads of human failures God makes Himself readily available to us through Jesus Christ, His Son.

Swimming Wonders

Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens." God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. Genesis 1:20-23 NASB

My son, Finnegan, started it all.  He decided that he was interested in sea creatures.  Whale sharks were the most interesting and everything else in the ocean was interesting by proximity.  I think the first mystery was the massive size of many of the greater sea creatures, but the adventure was only beginning.  First evening story time became dedicated exclusively to reading about sea creatures, and then even our entertainment hours began to be consumed by deep sea documentaries.  What is most lovely and remarkable about each of these amazing creatures is how beautiful and complex they are.  They fill the depths of the ocean with amazing bio-luminescence and interconnected systems of living and functioning together that until very recently went totally unnoticed by humanity.  To see these creatures that were created with such beauty and magnificence and such purposeful planning even though many would never be seen by human eyes is remarkable.  It is another demonstration of the greatness of God to have created a world that will intrigue and impress us with its wonder and magnificence until we are face to face with Him...and even still all of the beauty of the created earth is only a reflection of the wonder of His infinite and matchless character expressed most fully in the person of Jesus Christ.

Turning on the Lights

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and season and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.  Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.  He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and  to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.  So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.  Genesis 1:14-19

It is mind blowing to think that God created light before creating the light makers.  I remember being haunted as a child by the atheist eschatology. Sitting in class and being told that our star would one day burn down and die, long before that taking all life off of the planet earth without so much as a sound.  I found the very thought appalling that some future generation of people would be slowly burned, or frozen to death while all human existence fizzled off no more meaningless than a candle that had run our of wick.  Upon noticing that I was trouble the teacher asked me what was wrong.  I replied that I was sad that everyone would die.  She tried to assure me with the words, "You'll already be long dead by then.  So don't worry about it!"  So that is what it is to live in spiritual darkness.  The world understands their dependence upon the "light givers" but would rather resign themselves to absolute meaninglessness and loss than risk seeing the light Creator! It is amazing for us to look up at the stars.  The beautiful pictures of the stars that are so far beyond our ability to see with the natural eye is beyond breathtaking.  The Hubble Telescope shows some of the amazing and beautiful formations that have been tucked away since God created the world.  When He formed those beautiful structures and formations was He thinking of us?  Did He think how amazed and mystified we would be as we saw the distant star formations that are invisible to the naked eye?  Or were we not even apart of the thought, did He just make them because they reflect something of the beauty, creativity and order that flow forth from His being?  I don't know, but what I do know is this: all of that beauty and wonder merited a single statement in Scripture: "He made the stars also."  God then proceeded to reveal pages and pages about Himself and His love for mankind.  It is amazing to think that the angels of heaven could see those "star structures" up close, but they marvel at what God is doing in every person who has trusted Jesus Christ.

Growing Things

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according ot its kind. and God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day. Genesis 1:11-13

Whenever spring comes around I am reminded that it is time again to cut and water the grass, and pull weeds.  This becomes a regular demand on my time for the next several months.  Yet, the labor that is expected to properly order my lawn should never distract me from the miracle of God's creation of vegetation.  At this point in the creation week nothing had been made that would reproduce by itself.  Pause for a moment and think that within each blade of grass and fruit tree that God made that day were the seeds that would go down through the generations of time and become the trees and plants that we see today.  God created a system of beautiful plants and flowers that would be so productive in their seed making and surrounding systems that they would cover the earth.  Through this amazing creation of self perpetuating plant life the worlds supply of breathable air would be kept in balance.  Through this creation all living creatures would have something upon which to feed and nourish themselves.  How remarkable that God provided this great world of plants and trees to make a world that was ready to sustain each and every one of us.  Next time we crunch into an apple or a tasty carrot may we remember that those things didn't just happen, nor did they just happen to be delicious, healthy and abundant throughout the earth.  That was a grace gift of Almighty God before He created all of the animals and humans who would rely upon that amazing provision.