Spending the Memorial Day weekend in a rented cabin one block from gorgeous Lake Tahoe gave me a chance to ponder the earth’s beginnings once more. Of course Genesis 1 has led to much speculation about how the earth was formed and how long it took. But I think we too often let that debate side-track us from the real focus of the Genesis story…indeed the entire Bible. It is God’s story.
For the record (though I’ve blogged it before), I am an Old World Creationist. I believe that an honest study of nature will inevitably align with the Holy Scriptures, and that properly understood (difficult in our limited human understanding), the unerring Word of God will never contradict the creation He has made. Lake Tahoe is a perfect example of the majesty of God’s creation…whether it was formed in an instant or through the over-time upheaval of the earth’s crust shouldn’t affect the unity of God’s people. We need to let go of our petty disagreements and “let” the sovereign and powerful God use whatever means He chooses to make His creation and trust that even if we don’t completely understand it, His methods impeccably align with His Word.
But I digress. As a beginning writer I learned that while there may be many characters and subplots in any good story, there is always one main character and one main theme. God’s story (the Bible) is like this; the subject of the Bible is God and its theme is God’s plan to redeem mankind from its fallen condition, as told through many characters and subplots.
What’s more, the Bible comes full circle by beginning and ending in a garden; that is, beginning in the Garden of Eden and ending in the Garden of Gethsemane, and nearby Mount Calvary. Every single story in-between and thereafter – every historical document, letter, prophecy, national drama, and personal comedy or tragedy – paints a picture of God’s response to mankind’s fall from grace in the first garden and His efforts to recapture that intimate relationship by way of Christ’s obedience in the second garden.
But that’s not all. Along the way, the Bible paints a vivid picture of God Himself, illustrating for readers what God is like in striking detail—what He thinks, feels, and what He cares about. It is the story about God, told to the people He loves. The mastery of the Bible is that it is told both from God’s perspective and from the perspective of our human frailty. So in that sense it is my story as well. I see myself in its pages, in the rebellion of Eve as well as the possibilities of redemption and a relationship with God in the confessions of King David, whom God called His “friend.”
Do you want to know God? I don’t mean know about Him…I mean know HIM. Then read His book (the Bible), talk to the Creator and Author of life, and let Him talk back to you through the pages of His story.