INCANDESCENT AMAZEMENT

Day 1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Gen. 1:1

The singer Mary Martin used to say that her grandmother, who lived to be ninety-nine years old, spent her life in a state of "incandescent amazement." Isn't that a marvelous term? It's what I feel when I ponder God's eternal nature, and when I read that first line of the Bible: "In the beginning God ..."

Few phrases have stimulated the mind and imagination as much as this opening verse. Numerous poets have tried to find words for the day that Shelley describes as "when God first dawned on chaos." Philosophers have written volumes reflecting on its wisdom. Scientists continue to debate aspects of its truth. And theologians—that's us, when we think and talk about God—find in these words both the beginning of God's story and our own story. We begin here as we explore our relationship to God, what the Christian faith is all about, and how we live out that faith day in and day out.

When asked in 1989 what book most influenced her during the past year, author Madeleine L'Engle responded:

There is no question that the book that has been most influential for me this past year is the Bible's first one: Genesis.... The marvelous story of the creation is for me filled with incredible joy ... the words shouting all things into being in a great cry of joy. Genesis is also filled with marvelous people—flawed and human—and underlines for me that God does not choose "qualified" people to do the work of love.... Genesis has everything—all the human vices and glories, love and hate, murder, sacrifice, and a great story. There is no end to plumbing its depths.

She's right. There is no end to plumbing its depths. In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, you have God's version of the human story and also our version of God's story.

You may wonder why I refer to only the first eleven chapters. As you read the book of Genesis, you will find there is a distinct, though unannounced, change of tone that begins at Chapter 11. It is there that the story of Abraham and his descendants begins. William M. Logan reminds us:

From that point on, the record has a more concrete sound. It moves more slowly and gives more details. It does not cover a thousand years in a single breath. It slows down to a pace with which we can keep up as it traces the life story of men and a nation. In contrast, the first eleven chapters of Genesis are epic in their scope. Their sweep is tremendous. Incomprehensible periods of time are covered in a few words. Stupendous events are described with brevity and matter of factness of a child's fairy story.

This is history, not in the sense of the chronological recording of people and events, but rather the nature of humanity and our spiritual journey. These chapters explain history not in terms of what, when, and how things happened, but why. Here's more from William Logan:

The stories are told in such manner that when I read them, I realize that I'm not reading an account of history; I'm looking in a mirror! This is not Adam I'm reading about; this is myself. This is not a tower built long ago in a faraway country: this is my own society in action, and I am part and parcel of that society.

GOD IS ETERNAL

Perhaps you've heard a child ask—because just about every child asks at some time or another—"Who made God?" The answer is, "No one." God has always been, God is and will always be. God existed before the world and before human history, and God will exist after the world and human history are dissolved.

Someone once asked Martin Luther what God was doing before the world was made. The old reformer replied, "Cutting switches with which to flog those who ask foolish questions!" Foolish or not, this question certainly makes us think. God is eternal, and when we begin to understand that, our relationship to God comes into clearer view.

There is something more we need to rest on: in the beginning, God created. Listen to the second verse: "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Gen. 1:2).

The world in all its complexity did not come into existence by chance; the odds are too great for that.

It's interesting to note that the Hebrew word used here for created is one that is used only in reference to God in the Bible. The truth is, the word implies work that is utterly beyond human imitation or comprehension. The world in all its complexity did not come into existence by chance; the odds are too great for that.

Someone has said that if you put ten pennies minted in consecutive years into your pocket, the odds of taking them out in order are one in ten billion. Can you imagine—those being the odds—that this universe, of which we are a part, could have just happened by chance?

William Herbert Carruth describes his sense of incandescent amazement at God's creation in his poem "Each in His Own Tongue":

A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jelly-fish and a saurian,
And caves where cave-men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty
And a face turned from the clod—
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.

As we begin our forty-day journey together, I invite you to ponder these foundational concepts that speak...