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.

The Sky

Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.  And God called the firmament heaven.  So the evening and the morning were the second day." Genesis 1:6-8

As a child I remember lying on my back and staring up at the sky.  Day or night this practice never failed to amaze me.  Whether looking out into a beautiful deep blue, clouds or out into an endless sea of stars there seems to be something amazing about that expanse that the Lord God spoke into place to divide the waters from the waters.  I wonder what an angel looking on at God's work in Creation week would think.  God had made this gigantic galaxy and in some corner of it He made this tiny ball that He had filled with water.  Then He made some space in between the waters to put things.  I wonder of the angels were curious as to what he would do with that little bit of space.  Could they have imagined that He was clearing a space for plants and birds, elephants and elk?  Could they have dared to think that He was creating an environment to place little creatures that would be both spirit and animal?  Would it be possible to even dream that He would imprint His very own image upon those creatures?  Yet more amazing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God would take on that form and die to restore them to Himself.  After that, that little space of sky that God created on the second day would be the medium through which Christ would be raised up into heaven to sit down at the right hand of God.  That very same sky will one day contain the returning King and hosts of His saints, saved by Grace.  All this is possible only because God cleared a little space between the waters.

To the Praise of His Glory

to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Eph. 1:12

This is a segment from our Sunday Night Service wherein we are studying Ephesians. Ephesians 1:3-14 uses this phrase "to the praise of His glory" repeatedly. These are some thoughts on that phrase.

There are two things here that should be very clear to the modern reader:

1) God is the one doing all of this.

2) It is for HIS glory that it is all done.

Again and again we see that this is all to his glory, not to ours, not for us. We are living in praise and glory of Him. It is our major purpose: To bring HIM glory forever! The amazing reality being that, by trusting in Jesus for salvation by His grace we become living, walking examples of how wonderful and amazing God is. The believer is a billboard simply on the basis of his totally unmerited salvation of God’s amazing character. In the saved believer God is shown to be gracious and loving (for saving an undeserving sinner), just and righteous (as the failures and unrighteousness of the believer were justly dealt with at the cross), holy and set apart (by making us perfect He does not have to compromise his own perfection to have communion with Him), sovereign and powerful (as His salvation cannot be overcome by our own demerit). What a magnificent reality that just by putting our faith in Jesus Christ we already exist as a resounding witness to the full and complete character of Almighty God!

Beautiful!

"...and all the children thought - and I agree with them - that there's nothing to beat good freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and it has come out of the pan half a minute ago." C.S. Lewis The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

I've had a day so nice I must share it. After a productive morning I raced my way up the River to put a line in the water. I don't usually catch many fish and it is mostly and exercise in patience and the enjoyment of nature. This time, however, five beautiful trout chose to grace the end of my line. I will spare you all of the gory details of the fight, and which were caught on dry flies and which on subsurface flies. However, I did decide to keep two of the five. One because it was a nice fish and greedily grabbed at my fly as it floated on the surface. It was a planned attack, and a great moment of victory. The other I kept because he didn't allow me to get the hook from his mouth in time for him to have a chance at survival. That's okay...more fish for me. There are no pictures of the glory moments. However, the memories are strong. There are some pictures, however:

The catching was a riot. It was a bit overcast and gloomy with a mist in the air that almost seems to stand still as you walk through it. The river provides the most fantastic listening experience, it is amazing how you can hear so much and still feel like the words "peace" and "silence" some how apply perfectly. Then came the cooking.

I fished until 7:00 which means I didn't get home until 10 till 8, I really didn't each much today (besides a few donuts in the morning ). So I was ready to eat. Not long after I arrived April got home with the kids who had been spending the day with their grandparents who love them very much. The kids ooh'ed and ahh'ed at my catch (loved every second of that), and then let me put them to sleep without a fight. After they went down the cooking began! Salt, garlic powder, lemon juice and pepper all went into the tin foil pack and the pack went on the grill for 15 min. while the taters simmered. The results were delicious!

My mother was a bit concerned that I didn't "clean" the fish before cooking them. Well they aren't very big, and I don't mind eating around the fish innards nearly so much as I mind blemishing my fresh caught fishes with knife strokes. The fish was perfect. Soft, flaky, moist, and delicious. I am so thankful that our creator gave us fish to catch and eat. They really are a wonder. The taters were boiled and tasted remarkably like boiled potatoes. They were special in that they were grown by a brother in the Lord at our church body. That made them taste even better!

Of course a cup of decaf English breakfast tea had to be drunk with careful appreciation.

And all moves from better to best as my beautiful wife and I chatted about the events of the day over my late supper. She tolerated the fish smells without complaint and worked on the Sunday school lesson for tomorrow. Truly an amazing woman who I am so blessed to have and to hold, to love and to cherish.

Sometimes a day contains so much good that you may just think it will burst and leave even the other days overflowing. This was a day like that.

I love this picture. I took it of a flower that came with many other flowers that I bought April (she deserved it, she puts up with me all the time!). This flower was very small, perhaps the size of the last two joints of your pinky finger. It has no real powers, no real abilities. You can't eat it (at least I don't think you can eat it), and it won't change your life. But it is beautiful. Isn't it strange that it is, at least in part, the perfect inability of flowers that make them so beautiful? Small and practically useless, this wonderful little photo of this flower that probably died a few days later still reminds me that there is beauty in the world.

This all comes to me because I am reading a book now that is about the deification of man. How great, how powerful, all we can achieve, all that we can do! Focusing on this group of people who are ultra powerful, ultra competitive and wanting to move the world. The futility of their mindsets and their actions is sad to me. The author so badly wants to make them out to be heroes, but they are so sad and small and lost that she can't do it. All of the accomplishments of man come to nothing. Isaiah 40:22-23 says:

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Interesting! So what of the people who are living like their accomplishments are the center of this whole thing? This book glorifies them for all they have done, worships them as the ones who are greater than the others, yet to the Lord, that's nothing. Their glory, and their money and their power will all dry up and blow away. I am just so thankful to be reminded by this truth by this sad author's foolishness that I am small. Though I swim in a sea of hundreds of millions of stars on a ball of mud that flies through space with utter disregard to my will in the matter, and though I cannot control the weather, nor the economy, nor the politics of this world, I am valuable. I am a small cove of beauty that the creator made and placed (for the time) in Denver Colorado, and one day he will come and collect this flower and take it to a place where it will forever bloom for His glory and goodness, and nothing else will matter.