And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.
– Genesis 1:11
Read this verse carefully. What do you not see?
As a programmer I know that I need to give a computer very specific instructions in order for it to perform the task I want it to perform. It’s not enough to say, “Computer, make me a fun racing game!” Instead, I’d have to tell it what the cars look like, what the road looks like, what the trees look like, how fast the cars should accelerate, how to handle collisions between cars and trees, what sounds the car should make when colliding with trees, and so on. Each instruction would itself be comprised of many sub-instructions, which are comprised of further instructions… The point is, I have to be specific!
In the passage above, and indeed in the rest of Genesis 1, God is not being specific. He could have said, “Make a granny smith apple tree, which will be 2-4 metres high when fully grown, with shiny green fruit that have several seeds at the core. Arrange these trees in clumps in grassy areas, but not in sandy areas. In sandy areas put tall coconut trees with hairy brown spheres with hard shells that crack open to reveal milky white flesh. The leaves will look like…”
But instead God simply says, “Let the earth sprout vegetation…”
What does this tell you? It tells me that this passage is not written like a scientific method, explaining precisely how God made fruit trees; rather, it’s written like a narrative. This passage is simply one broad brush stroke in the story of creation told in the first chapter of Genesis.
This story has a recurring theme: God speaks, and stuff happens. Things spring into existence from nothing. Land! Sea! Vegetation! Life! We’re not told how; just what, and more importantly, who.
From reading Genesis 1 alone, we don’t know how the world was made, only that it was made by a being much more powerful than us—and that that being is God.
Then we have perhaps the most beautiful verse in the Bible:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
– Genesis 1:27
God made us in his image! Being God’s image-bearers has all sorts of far-reaching implications: we seek to create, like our Creator; we seek to love, as God loves; and we have significance—our very existence glorifies God.
This doesn’t just give us encouragement as individuals; it tells us how we should treat others, too. The whole of mankind is made in God’s image. I am. You are. How then should we treat each other?
I’ll wrap this up with one of my favourite C. S. Lewis quotes, which always makes me stop and think:
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
– The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis
Observations 