Reading
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Devotion
Peace be with you!
An empty space and a few chosen colors allow an artist to tell their audience a story that could fill a whole novel. Artists take a void and fill it with meaning and a purpose. Artists can fill a space with bright colors to showcase a joyous occasion or dark colors to portray sadness. Red, orange, and yellow are warm and cozy, while blue, purple, and green are cold and uninviting. An artist can take the audience on a journey or tell a story from the past. As an artist, painting allows me to express emotions I cannot get out otherwise. Painting also gives me an opportunity to give order to one little space when I feel the world spinning out of control.
God has the imagination to create something out of a complete void. He literally takes nothing and makes everything you could ever need or want, where as human artists start with their chosen medium – paper or canvas with pen, pastels, chalk, crayon, markers, or paint. God takes a formless space and creates the world with a sky, water, light and darkness, plants, animals, sun, moon, stars, and even human beings. From the beginning of time to the present, God shows us that he can and will do the impossible. During creation, God takes a formless void to create the world we continue to live in today.
I am always criticizing my work and painting over areas that do not look just right to me. God creates light and says it is good; God creates sky and says it is good; God creates land and sea and says it is good; God creates sun and the stars and says it is good; God creates light and says it is good. Nothing God creates is bad or not good enough; everything is good and pleases God.
When God creates the living creatures of the sea and land, he says it is good. He also blesses the creatures to be fruitful and fill the sea and land. He gives the living creatures purpose in the world.
When God creates human beings, he again says it is good and blesses them to be fruitful and fill the earth. God also blesses human beings with the responsibility to rule over the living creatures of the land and sea. God creates the sky, land, sea, and living creatures and gives the human beings the opportunity to use his creation to live and strive. God gives everything that is good to the human beings.
As an artist, I am struck by how God is pleased with what he creates. He does not mash it up and start again. He is deliberate about when and what he creates. God separates light from darkness and land from the sea, and he creates the sky for the birds, the sea for the fish, land to grow vegetation, and human beings to give his creation purpose. And he says it is good.
Thanks be to God!
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for creating the earth with the sky, land, and sea with living creatures. Help us to tend to your creation. Thank you for giving us purpose in your creation. Amen.
Reflective Questions
Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the behavior covenant by commenting on it.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.
- God says you are his good creation. What does that mean to you?
- How do you carry out the responsibility to tend to God’s creation?